The Best Ramen in Japan

In a nondescript row of shops a short distance up the road from Yamato Saidaiji station in Nara, you will find the best ramen in Japan. That is a bold claim to make, so it requires some support. It is widely known that the quality of a bowl of ramen begins and ends with the broth. In other words, a good bowl of ramen must have a high quality broth, but a bowl containing a lower quality broth cannot be saved by the other ingredients.

The broth at this Nara City ramen shop is second to none. It has neither a tonkotsu base nor a soy sauce or miso base. Instead, it is a magical, original creation. It has the deep, rich flavor of a tonkotsu broth, but without the overly heavy texture that sometimes characterizes it. The secret ingredient may well be garlic, because it is served as a standard condiment to be thoroughly mixed into the broth. Later on in my time in Nara, a side of chili paste became another regular condiment, but I was much less enamored by it, because of its tendency to overpower the glorious original flavor of the broth.

The next most important ingredient in a good bowl of ramen is the noodles. In contrast to the broth, though, I have no distinct memory of the noodles at this ramen shop. If the broth is the hero of the dish, the noodles are the sidekick, and in this case it would seem that they play their complementary role to perfection.

Next in the order of importance are the slices of pork (chashu) that are a standard ingredient in ramen. At this ramen shop, a generous number of pork slices are draped around the entire circumference of the bowl. More importantly, they are tender and sliced neither too thinly nor too thickly.

At the beginning of this essay, I described the shop as nondescript, but it is actually one of the more spacious ramen shops that one could hope to visit. There is double-sided counter seating, accompanied by several booths for larger groups, and the facilities are clean and well maintained. Furthermore, the service is friendly and welcoming. During the three years that I lived in Nara, I dined at this ramen shop about once a week, so the chefs/owners came to recognize me as a regular customer.

On one memorable occasion, my junior high school principal entered the shop when I had already begun my meal. Not only did he finish his bowl before I did, he made a call and then handed his cell phone to me. I had no idea who was at the other end of the line when I took the call, but it turned out to be one of the Japanese English teachers that I worked with at my junior high school. He informed me that my principal wanted to shout me my bowl of ramen!

In summary, those are the reasons why my old local ramen shop in Nara is the best ramen I have eaten anywhere in Japan.

Ming

Vocabulary

nondescript (adj.) – very ordinary and not interesting or attractive
enamored (adj.) – impressed with or enthusiastic about something
overpower (v) – to be much stronger than the taste of another ingredient
shout (v) (Australian exp.) – to offer to buy something for someone, especially food or drink