Friday, October 15, 2010

大石家 (Oishiya in Nagano)

中華そば 大石家

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Every trip to Nagano ends up being a culinary adventure. On Saturday, we ate local Shinshu cuisine like mountain chicken, apples, and of course a lot of sake. On Sunday, at my friend's wedding, we ate what could well be the best course meal I've had in Japan. On Monday I ate river fish sushi at a roadside stand while riding my motorcycle. After all that, I asked a Nagano native to take me to the best ramen in town.

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Oishiya often tops local best of lists, and though the place was empty, it looked like a winner from the start.

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A winner indeed.

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The soup and noodles here at Oishiya are best described as "easy going". Very simple, very clean. On the other hand, the chashu and menma were some of the most robust and flavorful I've had. As close to perfect shoyu as I've had.

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I've been promised that on future trips to Nagano that I'll be introduced to all the top shops. Looking forward to it!

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7 comments:

MONONOKE KITCHEN said...

Such a great food!
You're so lucky to be there!

Anonymous said...

I've been following your blog for awhile now, and I'm finally in Tokyo myself (actually, somewhere between Tokyo and Yokohama.) You reference "best lists" and reviews and things like that, but where do you go to find these things? I'm not terribly familiar with popular Japanese internet sites. Do you have some favorite guidebooks or online resources you use that I might be able to use to find out what people in my neighborhood like? Something like Yelp...

Ramen Adventures said...

There are all kinds of Yelp-like creations... all in Japanese. If you want English, it's gotta be my site or some of the fine sites linked over on the right side. The ramen database is all in Japanese, but maybe you can figure it out:

http://ramendb.supleks.jp/

ramenkia said...

Great photos, so appetising. Thanks for sharing. Keep them coming. Hungry for a bowl after reading your blog. Love Japan. Visit Fukuoka every few years for a good feed, sake and friends.

PudgyM29 said...

I run the Supleks database through the Google® translator.
It is not perfect, but you will get the idea of what each reviewer liked or didn't like about the ramen.

Gastromaniac said...

I love menma... wouñd have enjoyed that bowl of ramen!

KM said...

Brian-san,
My handling name on the ramen database is KM. I also visited Oishiya in August. I think Oishiya is a nice ramen shop, becaue I am a sort of a traditionalist you mentioned in Ivan Plus.
The following is my report? or writing on Oishiya:
http://ramendb.supleks.jp/score/282344
Have you had a black ramen?
I would like to recommend to go to Fukuya in Nagano next time:
http://ramendb.supleks.jp/score/283076
I am not good at English, so this is a last English comment, but I love receiving comments in English(reading English is not so difficult for me).
Thanks.KM