Quit the pizza and love your ramen

November 19, 2019November 19, 2019 Young Joo Jun bubbletea, culture, eating, food, foodie, Fredericton, japan, japanese, noodles, ramen, to eat, tokyo, traditional, young joo jun, youngjoo

Ramen, Asia’s equivalent of a Pizza. Japan’s best creation that the world could enjoy. Believed to originate in early 20^th century Japan. The noodle dish started off as Chinese soba noodles, and transformed into first Shoyu or if directly translated, soy sauce ramen in Yokohama.

*Currently there are 19 regional styles of ramen in Japan.*

It rapidly gained popularity in 1960s and now there are over 10’000 Ramen restaurants in Japan alone and over 23’000 in North America, Ministry of foreign affairs reported in 2017.

Tokyo Ramen is closest in authenticity to a Japanese ramen restaurant in Fredericton. They produce around a hundred portions of noodles per day. After 4PM on Thursdays Masaomi Kamazuka, 18, helps make noodles in a glass both that showcases noodle-making in the restaurant. He is the youngest son of Hirofumi Kamazuka, the owner of Tokyo ramen.

Tokyo Ramen has been open for almost a year, and still gathers lines outside its restaurant on weekends.

Each noodle maker has their own technique and secret recipe that they perfect over many years. Masaomi has been making ramen noodles for three years now. Fumikiyo Kamazuka, the eldest son, helps come up with new broth bases for the ramen, and is usually responsible for summer themed recipes.

“Soy soup, and miso soup, and even seafood broth, it’s all different, and we make huge quantities. You’ll be surprised how much we make at once. And that’s not all too, we make the Teriyaki sauce. Basically, all the sauce we use are homemade,” said Kamazuka.

Light beer and a set of Gyoza on the side, perfectly compliments a bowl of steamy ramen.

It is recommended to start off with soup, and eat noodles quickly while still hot, as they get soggy. This dish is popular because it’s fast, fresh, savory, and is fairly accessible to the people, especially in Japan. There are four types of classic Ramen, Shio, Shoyu, Miso, and Tonkatsu off of which many ramen recipes are based.

Shio broth is made of special Japanese salt and is white in color usually. Miso broth uses fermented soy bean paste as the base, and shoyu is based on soy sauce. My personal favorite is Tonkatsu Ramen, with a pork broth that is stewed for a whole day.

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