中村屋 (Nakamuraya in Ebina)

中村屋

A legendary shop, many miles from Tokyo.

Although Nakamuraya's ramen is available closer to central Tokyo at the West Park Cafe, visiting the main shop was on my list. Not just to try the ramen, but to meet the shop's newest member. It's Keizo! After 6 months at Ivan Ramen, and a year at Bassanova, he has stepped into another ramen position. You can read about his daily life over at goramen.

The #1 seller these days is the yuzu shio, a light salt ramen with some fresh yuzu citrus grated in.

The shop's signature shake. The cooked noodles should be as free of water as possible, for the taste. But equally important is the showmanship involved.

What to say that the picture doesn't? This bowl is superb. The pork is flame roasted, the noodles done just right, and the extras, like the hint of yuzu, just adds to it all.

The shio was some of the best I've ever had. I didn't have a chance to try the shoyu ramen, and if a history of hundreds of bowls has taught me anything, it's that I always like a shop's shoyu more than the shio.

If the light bowl was too little, there are some sides, such as chashu rice bowl with ponzu sauce.

Official Site (Japanese)

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神奈川県海老名市中央2-5-41 サティー立体駐車場1F
Kanagawa-ken, Ebina-shi, Chuo 2-5-41
(across from the WB movie theater)
Closest station: Ebina

Open 11:00-14:00, 18:00-21:00
Weekends 11:00-15:00, 17:30-21:00
Closed Wednesdays

九ツ家 (Kokonotsuya in Hachioji)

九ツ家

Hachioji is, yes, a bit out of the way. I was working out here for the day, and wanted to go to En, one of the highest rated shops in Japan. But the soup had run out, and I was turned away at the door. Such is the life of a ramen adventurer.

Instead, I went to the nearest shop, a Yokohama style ramen shop just around the corner. I like the name. Counting in Japanese is confusing. Though kyu means nine, if you are asking about 9 objects, you should say kokonotsu. Confusing, yes. But when you are drinking with a group at the 150yen beer joint, screaming out "Coconuts!" will get you another round of 9 beers. Try it sometime! I'm not sure what this ramen shop has to do with kokonotsu, or coconuts for that matter.

The bowl was nothing special, but the pork was close to the original ie-kei style in Yokohama.

I'll be back (just around the corner though).

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東京都八王子市横山町22-1
Tokyo, Hachioji-shi, Yokoyamacho 22-1

Open 11:00-23:00

克味 (Katsumi in Akebonobashi)

麺匠 克味

Thick, delicious tonkotsu soup is the specialty at Menya Katsumi. How thick? I don't think this stuff could be thicker and still be classified as a liquid. How delicious? Real delicious.

Katsumi hails from Nigata, at a shop called Naoji, a shop serving Jiro-kei bowls. Luckily, their Tokyo opening goes in a different direction.

I decided on the tonkotsu miso this time around. LV40. The LV corresponds directly to soup viscosity. Go thick.

Intense. If this is your first time here, choose the shop's specialty, a LV60, thick as mud tonkotsu.

More of a sauce than soup. Katsumi bills their ramen as NEO tonkotsu, a name that I'll agree with. But instead of an inventive combination of pork bones and other animal products, the soup here is straight pig. You'll see the kanji 濃厚 a lot. Noko means thick. I said, "mud" before. If the streets of heaven are paved in gold, the off-road motocross racing circuits of paradise are full of this stuff.

If it wasn't 11am, I might have indulged. Does your beer face look like that? How about your ramen face?

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東京都新宿区住吉町8-10 ライオンズマンション市ヶ谷1階
Tokyo, Sinjuku-ku, Sumiyoshicho 8-10

Nearest station: Metro Akebonobashi

Open 11:00-23:00
Sundays until 22:00