Wednesday, May 1, 2013

麺屋はなび (Hanabi in Nagoya)

麺屋はなび

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Hanabi, in the outskirts of Nagoya, came highly recommended.

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I say outskirts, but to be honest, I know almost nothing about Nagoya. What is famous here? What are the people like? Why is this city Japan's 3rd largest? I do know, though, that Nagoya gets a bad rap. My coworkers joked that in a national ranking of beautiful women, Nagoya comes in dead last.

Ouch.

Despite often muttered shots like this, Nagoya does have one thing going for it, at least. Taiwan Ramen.

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Shoyu ramen with a kick. A kick of spice and a kick of vinegar. Hanabi's menu has it, somewhere on that giant page. Yeah, this shop is a repeater. Too bad I was just there for one night. What to get?

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When the noodle master has on a mazemen t-shirt, you order the mazemen. Taiwan mazemen.

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Like I said, I can't attest to the beauties of my human species, but this bowl is definitely gorgeous.

Maze maze it up!

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Delicious. This ranks up with Junk Garage as one of the best maze style bowls in Japan. If you find yourself with a couple free hours in Nagoya, do yourself a favor.

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The downside? Yeah, there is one.

A 10 minute train ride from Nagoya station. A 9 minute walk from the station. And then the line. Over 50 people were waiting on a Saturday night.

I had just finished doing about eight hours of cardio workout level kid's shows (my non-ramen job!), and wanted nothing more than a bath, a beer, and bed at the hotel. An hour and a half standing in the cold was unpleasant to say the least. Downright torture if I feel like over-exaggeration of this story. Followed by a 2500 yen taxi back to the hotel.

So was it worth it? Yeah, it kind of was.

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Official Site Here


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愛知県名古屋市中川区高畑1-170
Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi, Nakagawa-ku, Takahata 1-170
Closest station: Arako

Open 11:30-14:00, 18:00-21:15
Closed Monday and some Tuesdays

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

my wife is from nagoya. she looks mighty fine to me. to this day she still lets me see fireworks.

Ramen Adventures said...

Clever, Anonymous, clever.

Looks like the rumors are false then!

Anonymous said...

Hey, I've been following this blog for a while, and seeing this bowl I think I've eaten something familiar before...

Oh yeah, in Tsurumi (where I live), there's this ramen shop called Tenka (てんか)that serves mainly their version of shiru nashi tantanmen. Superb tare, in my opinion. And then they also serve this. Is this bowl spicy? That's the only thing I can remember about it.

Ramen Adventures said...

Spicy, but not crazy spicy like tantanmen is sometimes. Tenka looks good, I added it to my list!

Anonymous said...

Good thing! I'm still a ramen noob but I really recommend their shiru nashi tantanmen, quite different from the other ones (thick noodles vs thin).

By the way, I'm more of a no-soup guy (mazemen, aburasoba, the likes)
so other than Junk Garage can you recommend other shops with similar style? I visited ajito for their pizza mazemen but it seems like they don't operate anymore or maybe I just visited at the wrong time.

Ramen Adventures said...

In Tokyo, Roshohon has the best no-soup tantanmen:

http://www.ramenadventures.com/2012/01/rashohan-in-kanda.html

Anonymous said...

I'll check that out. Thanks!