Local Ramen in Bayone, France

Local Ramen in Bayonne, France

What an adventure!

Jean Baptiste from Kodawari Ramen and I went to the south of France to visit his pork provider. Using local ingredients and a makeshift outdoor kitchen, we made our own ramen. Everything except the soy sauce was from the area around this beautiful vineyard. Enjoy the video.



Could this be the start of something new? A ramen Tour de France? France's local terroir is incredible, and every corner of the country is a celebration of quality cooking and quality products.

Sanjo in Paris, France

Sanjo in Paris, France

Let's face it, I love ramen but I will choose good non-ramen food over mediocre ramen any day. This presents a problem when I travel abroad. People expect me to crush every noteworthy bowl in town. And the town of Paris, France has a lot of noteworthy shops. Not necessarily good, just famous.

The food scene in the 2nd district is especially strong. Chinese, Japanese, Thai . . . the area is littered with questionable Asian cuisine. Historically, most shops served a mismatched menu of whatever was trending at the time. It was (is) common to find a restaurant serving Chinese stir fry, Japanese salmon sushi rolls, and Thai pad thai at budget prices.

I wanted to check out Sanjo for a few reasons.

First of all, the origin story is kind of interesting. A Japanese fashion designer, after spending time at Paris Fashion Week, wasn't happy with the ramen scene. He wanted a simple tonkotsu ramen. Soup de porc would be the staple at Sanjo. Sure, you can't run a ramen shop outside of Japan without sides like gyoza or rice bowls but the ramen would reign at Sanjo.

Second of all, the chef's Ryoun Komatsu and Masa Hayatsu have credentials in the ramen world, from both Paris and Kyoto.

Third of all, this place is hot but relatively undiscovered. No line!

Great bowl! No frills, though I think the menu expands to other Japanese items for dinner.

Great atmosphere. The shop is light and airy.

Great staff. They know what they are doing.

Slurp x 鬼金棒 Collab in Copenhagen

Slurp x 鬼金棒

My dream became a reality. Kikanbo in Copenhagen. Two days of ramen bliss for those lucky enough to score a seat. 

Check out the video!



The short story is that a year and a half ago I visited Copenhagen for the first time to try my friend Philip's new ramen shop. Slurp ramen was great!



At the same time, I had the pleasure of dining at Noma. I learned that the Noma staff had spent almost one month in Tokyo for a popup at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel a few years prior. During their residency, the staff of 20 plus people would walk to Kikanbo for a bowl almost daily. They became obsessed. Kikanbo is pure comfort food. And though the Noma-Tokyo menu had exotic shrimp topped with local ants, some "demon ramen", as head chef René Redzepi called it, was what the staff wanted more than anything.

In the back of my mind, I told myself I would bring Kikanbo to Copenhagen. Want to hear more about this project? I'll make a Patreon-only video for my supporters on Patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/ramenadventures

Ramen is my passion. This popup was just another passion project. Thank you for showing your support as a Patron. Patreon is a platform that lets people support their favorite creators with a monthly financial donation. It is almost impossible for me to judge if my blog and YouTube channel are popular. Neither makes much money at all, maybe just enough for a few bowls of ramen. If people want, I will devote more of my time to ramen. Simple as that.

We severely underestimated the spice tolerance of the Nordic people. We thought only a few would want the devil-level, Kiaknbo's mega spicy blend made with scorpion peppers. Though we advertised 10 a day, we were able to do about 15-20. Crazy considering we only served 200 bowls each day.

Ramen and a drink. Do you want that drink to be something from Empirical Spirits?

Although I think the name of this distilled beverage is a bit pedantic, this is an incredible drink. They took all the flavor of habanero peppers with none of the heat. Fruity and herbal. Really amazing stuff.





Of course, after the popup event, I had to see if Slurp's own shio ramen still holds up.



Yes. Yes, it does. The recipe has changed a bit, using more local ingredients. Before, the tare was made with some very expensive dried Japanese ingredients, something that was just too pricey to import. Europe has become more and more legit in terms of umami-rich seafood. This bowl shows that.



Great sides to go with craft beer.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the event. It was held in September 2018. I'd love to do more of these. It was a lot of work but in the end an unforgettable experience.

Ivan Ramen x ラーメンとビール Collab in Copenhagen

Ivan Ramen x ラーメンとビール



Europe 2018 was lit when it came to ramen. I had a three-week plan to do a popup, meet friends, and slurp my way across three or four countries.



By chance, Ivan Ramen from New York was in Copenhagen at the same time that I was there. Ivan Orkin wasn't just in town to hang out, he was there to do his own collaboration event with Mikkeller Beer's Ramen to Biru. The five-day ticketed event included a bowl, a snack, and a can of their original craft beer.



I was in town with Mirua-san and Yama-san, chefs from Kikanbo Ramen in Tokyo. We arrived Wednesday morning and slurped here Wednesday night. Not a bad way to start the trip.



I absolutely loved the outdoor tables. Anyone who has been to Europe knows that outdoor seating is normal. In Japan, not so much. Sitting on the street with friends, drinking good beer and slurping good ramen. What could be better?

The ramen was excellent, but I think my choice, the creamy toripaitan, was the standout. Part of this is because of the outdoor seating. Copenhagen is warm in the summer, but anything served outside will cool down quickly. Creamy soups are thicker and retain the heat better than the clear soups. This is a rule across the board; toripaitan and tonkotsu ramen is always the best at outdoor events for me.

Check out my Copenhagen video. It includes a few moments from this popup as well as the Kikanbo x Slurp popup.

Tomita at Narita Airport

日本の中華そば 富田 成田空港第一ターミナル店

Tomita is one of Japan's most famous tsukemen shops. The recent Ramen Heads movie means that many people around the world know about the shop.

And while the shop in Matsuda is the real deal, they recently opened a branch at Narita Airport. Convenient!

Keep in mind, this is not a carbon copy clone of the original shop. Part of what makes Tomita so great is that the master, Osama Tomita, is always there making sure every detail is perfect. This is what the Japanese call a shokunin (職人) or craftsman. People will wait up to four hours at the head shop for what is arguably the number one shop in all of Japan.

Tomita at the airport, on the other hand, uses an off-site industrial kitchen. The whole thing was overseen by Tomita-san, but the experience is nonetheless different.

That aside, this is one amazing bowl. I've had airport ramen from Sapporo to Kyushu, and this one is legit.

Thick tonkotsu gyokai soup, heavy on the dried fish flavors. Underlying umami is intense on this one.

Great egg!

Great soup, great noodles, and great toppings. Tonkotsu gyokai tsukemen is on most people's hit list in Japan. Rokurinsha is the shop that most foreigners know about, mostly due to the hype from an American TV show that aired around 10 years ago. That overseas hype will probably be taken over by Tomita, but then lost. Most people are unwilling to wait the required time at the head shop. Who knows, a very famous YouTuber made a video there, so that might drive things a bit.

I'm ranting a bit. If you've met me in person, you know that I really dislike the way ramen becomes famous in the West (and China) versus how a shop becomes famous in Japan.

I'd say this is a must hit on your way out of Japan, if you are traveling from Narita Airport. By the way, Haneda Airport, despite the lack of a Tomita branch, is the one you should use. Narita is 90 minutes to three hours from Tokyo. Haneda is a quick 20-minute monorail ride. Just FYI.

Tabelog Awards Six Ramen Shops with Coveted Bronze Award

Tabelog Awards 2019

Tabelog is Japan's internet portal to the vast number of restaurants across the country. The site serves up general information, like addresses and hours, but the most popular feature of the site is the user reviews. Shops are given a ranking, with five being the highest. Shops with a ranking above four are generally considered excellent. Most of these are in the realm of fine dining. Among the over 50,000 ramen shops on the site, only five have scored above four. To put this in perspective, sushi has 90 shops with a ranking above four.



For a ramen shop to be put alongside great kaiseki or French cooking is a huge honor.



In 2016, Tabelog began the Tabelog Awards to honor the most revered shops.

https://award.tabelog.com/en?lang=en

It's the Grammys of Japanese cuisine and the 30 restaurants in the gold category are coveted by food lovers from around the world.



Although no ramen shops were given gold or silver, six were awarded bronze awards.

Muginae



Muginae in Tokyo is known for a refined shoyu ramen using high-quality ingredients. They open for a few hours at lunch, and if you aren't lined up for dinner at 6:00 pm, you probably won't get in. Their ramen uses specialty chickens from Yamagata and a soy sauce blend from Hyogo and Nagano.

Idashoten



Idashoten is in Yugawara, a town in the far reaches of Kanagawa Prefecture. Another refined style, they often run out of their timed tickets by 8:00 am in the morning. They are particularly famous for their tsukemen, which uses thin noodles in konbu-sui, a kind of viscous kelp broth high in umami.

Itto



Itto's thick tsukemen is very popular with Japanese and foreigners alike. The lines tend to be long, but not outrageous. Their success has led to a few shops within their group, including an Itto branch in Bangkok, Thailand.

Nagomi



Nagomi, on the east side of Hyogo Prefecture, is the newcomer to the list. Creamy chicken soup is topped with two kinds of chicken chashu as well as some roasted pork. The shop isn't too far from Osaka or Kobe by train.

Seino



Seino is about an hour south of Wakayama City in Wakayama Prefecture. Their popular Wakayama-style bowl uses intense local soy sauce. Due to their location in the countryside, the lines are irregular.

Tomita



Tomita has been one of Japan's most celebrated shops for over a decade, and with the release of Ramen Heads, a documentary film about the ramen scene in Japan that focuses on Tomita, they are becoming even more popular with overseas guests. To get a bowl of the intense tonkotsu-gyokai tsukemen, you should line up in the morning for a timed ticket. This new system was put in place to alleviate the four-hour lines that were the norm at the shop.

The Tabelog awards have given bronze to ramen shops in the past. A year ago, the same shops won apart from Nagomi. In 2016, the list was Ibuki, Ichikawa, Itto, Seino, and Tomita. Before that, in 2015, ramen was given a best 50, which is cataloged over at the best-of-ramen site:

http://bestoframen.com/lists/best-of-tabelog-2015/

Tabelog continues to be one of the most popular food portals in Japan, though their English language version isn't as robust as their Japanese version, meaning overseas sites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, and even Google reviews still have a huge following with foreign tourists.

While the gold, silver, and bronze categories focus on fine-dining, Tabelog has also created best-100 lists in casual categories. Pizza, curry, even bread gets a category here.



Due to the sheer popularity of ramen across Japan, they split the ramen category into three; East, West, and Tokyo.



With 300 shops to try, even the most well-traveled ramen lover has their work cut out for themselves.

人類みな麺類 (Jinrui in Osaka)

人類みな麺類

I missed my train back to Tokyo for this one. Ramen over reserved seating on the bullet train any day.

The line on a Sunday evening was about an hour. Normal for famous shops.

原点 (genten), micro, and macro. All are 800 yen. The genten is their original recipe, shoyu a little on the sweet side made with dried bonito fish. Micro is a straight soy version. Macro uses shellfish to add deeper flavors.

I had to try the genten. It's the one that made them famous.

Both the pork and the menma are bonkers here. Thick cut (both). Homemade (both). Incredible (both).

I'm always surprised at how amazing ramen in Osaka is. Sure, they don't have the sheer number of shops that Tokyo has, but the stellar shops really shine.

That pork. Worth the wait for this alone.

Human beings everybody noodles.

This shop is part of the UNCHI group, who run seven shops, all with equally mysterious English names. A couple winners:

• The old man's best swing - くそオヤジ最後のひとふり
• The most deserted ramen bar in the world - 世界一暇なラーメン屋
• The soul of Japan - 担担麺の掟を破る者
• Ramen and Beer

Definitely on the list.

And a random note about train tickets in Japan. If you have reserved seats, but miss your train, you can still ride in the unreserved car on another train later in the day. So though I missed my window seat back to Tokyo, getting home was no problem. Actually, I miss a lot of trains due to ramen.

大阪麺哲 (Mentetsu in Osaka)

大阪麺哲

What a bowl!

I met up with Ben for a bowl in his home of Osaka. Mentetsu was on the list, but I didn't really know what kind of ramen I was in for. We sat down and started looking over the menu. Ben mentioned that this spot has a secret menu. The idea is that only those in the know will know. A perk for regulars and fans.

In a big voice, I asked the staff what is on the 裏 menu for the day.

They said they don't have any idea what I was talking about.

So here's how it works. Check their Facebook page. Do NOT ask them about it. This is the rule, meant to keep their secret menu a secret.

My bad.

So I ordered off the normal (yawn!) menu. Yama (山) looks interesting.

Ramen topped with grated Japanese yam and a raw egg. This is ネバネバ food. Neba-neba means slimy, and they love it in Japan. I'm not a fan of about half the neba-neba stuff out there (natto, okra, nameko), but Japanese yam blends perfectly with soup.

It might look like a mess, but it is wonderful.

I'll be back, armed with a softer voice and knowledge of the secret menu of the day.