Sanku (Osaka-shi, Fukushima-ku)

烈志笑魚油 麺香房三く
れっししょうゆ めんこうぼう さんく
Resshouyu Mengoubou Sanku

Kake ramen: 17 /20
(かけ)

We had plans to go to Komi to continue our Ra-Sai with Ben, but the shop was closed because of some accident, leaving us with only a sticker to fill our ramen-bingo-sheet. Fukushima was on our way back to the city, an area that offered the promise of a huge choice of ramen. We turned to Sanku, which Ben had already tried some time ago, and that I had unsuccessfully tried to visit a couple of months earlier. Only three persons in front of us, that’s a chance for such a famous shop!

We were first served some kind of simmered potato with a little bit of meat as an appetizer, a nice start.

I ordered their regular dish, the ‘kake ramen’.

Broth: It was salty, very fishy (with some slight pugency due, I presume, to niboshi), intense in taste, and had an interesting graininess in mouth. Delicious!

Noodles: Some curly, thin noodles - not bad, but I would expect something a bit more unique here.

Meat: Two large slices of a thick, onctuous, tender, melting chashu – just great.

Toppings: Some spinach (or maybe komatsuna?), as well as some long bits of hard, white negi. At the bottom of the bowl, I also got half of an iwashi (sardine), but it was slightly burned, and not-so-exceptional in taste.

Ben had the tsukemen, which had REALLY huge noodles, very thick and long (one noodle was enough for a mouthful!), but quite light in taste. The broth, a shoyu tori paitan / tonkotsu, had some kind of veggie texture and a very special taste, kind of fishy, definitely familiar but we couldn't put a name on it. I would rate it somewhere around 16/20, depending on the quality of the meat.

Finally, you get some very good desert made from coffee jelly bean.

Because of the diversity of small dishes, the very detailed explanations, and the friendliness, this shope does enter into the "excellent" category! And as I went out, I realized that they have a niboshi ramen, the gyusan ramen, I guess I’ll have to go back there.

More info on ramendb.

Other review: Friends in Ramen

Mutahiro (Osaka-shi, Fukushima-ku / Sengoku ramen event)

中華そば ムタヒロ(大阪福島店)
ちゅうかそば むたひろ
Chuuka Soba Mutahiro

Shio ramen: 16 / 20

It was difficult not to notice this funny smiling guy wearing a hat and overalls on the Sengoku ramen event pictures.

It would have been even more difficult to miss him in the middle of the crowd during the event, using a carrot as a microphone (sic) to advertise his ramen. This was not the reason that made me chose his stand, though: as it happened, he was promoting a thin shio ramen with plenty of vegetables, exactly what I needed as a second, lighter bowl after Nibojiro.

Broth: A peppery light broth which had taken the taste of the fried bean sprouts. Very pleasant. It became too fat towards the end, though.

Noodles: Ah, such beautiful noodles! Look at them – do they remind you something?

If you guessed right, you're a real ramen expert: as Ben told me, those are Nagi’s noodles, which offers possibly the best niboshi ramen of Tokyo. Firm, very curly, they surprisingly fitted extremely well with the broth despite its significant difference with Nagi's – those noodles are magic!

Meat: A lot – too much, actually – of firm, good chicken. At some point, I swear I could taste some yuzu notes, but they vanished as fast as they appeared.

This countrysidish bowl was a very good surprise. Unfortunately, you won’t find it at the shop they have opened recently in Osaka's Fukushima area – but as I would discover later, the dishes there have nothing to envy to this one. To meet the guy talking to a carrot, I'm affraid you'll have to go to Tokyo though.

More info on ramendb.

Other reviews: Ramen Adventures 1 (niboshi ramen, Tokyo), Ramen Adventures 2 (tori paitan, Tokyo), Ramen Adventures 3 (niboshi mazesoba, Tokyo)

Misawa (Osaka-shi, Fukushima-ku)

つけ麺 みさわ(本店)
つけめん みさわ
Tsukemen Misawa (Honten)

Niboshi tsukemen: 16 / 20
(煮干つけ麺)

After Mitsuboshi, I decided to continue my exploration of the Fukushima area. JET always had a terribly long queue, so Misawa was next on my list: a niboshi tsukemen, I had to try this!

Broth: A peppery broth with some niboshi taste, crowned by some even more peppery fish powder. There is some ginger on top of the noodles bowl, but be careful when using it, as it can easily overwhelm the taste of niboshi. The soup wari was not so special, but you can get a beautiful, triangular yakiishi (hot stone) to heat your bowl.

Noodles: OK, but not so firm.

Meat: One small slice of good, braised chashu, with melting fat.

Toppings: Some thick, fibrous, OK menma, soft behind the crunchiness. Some raw, very crunchy bits of white onions on the side that went quite well with the soup. You can put some shichimi (mix of seven spices) that seemed to include japanese pepper/sanshou - quite pleasant.

Although nothing was in itself exceptional, the peppery powder, crunchy onions, ginger and shichimi all brought interesting and various twists, and changed this bowl into a symphony of flavors. Definitely recommended.

More info on ramendb.

Other reviews: Friends in Ramen 1, Friends in Ramen 2 (another shop)

Mitsuboshi (Osaka-shi, Fukushima-ku)

みつ星製麺所 (福島本店)
みつぼしせいめんしょ
Mitsuboshi Seimensho (Fukushima Honten)

Wafu ramen: 17 / 20
(和風らーめん)

Fukushima is a remarkably rich area in terms of ramen, and this restaurant is – its name does not lie – one of its stars. I arrived there at 12:30 on a Saturday without much hope to find a seat, knowing that there are many ramen shops in the area anyway, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was only a 15 minutes-long queue; that’s very doable, so here I wait. I ordered the wafu ramen, the thin one (but they are especially famous for their kotteri ramen).

Broth: A thin and cloudy tonkotsu-niboshi broth, with some bits of fat in suspension. The taste of niboshi was present and pleasant, but not as pronounced as e.g. in Mugen where I went last week. You get some yuzukoshio on the side that you can mix in your broth to your liking; despite my love of yuzukoshio, I would not recommend putting all of it, as it would (it did!) overpower the subtle niboshi taste - finding the right balance is relatively difficult.

Meat: An excellent crumbly chashu, with just the right amount of fat.

Egg: Half of a perfectly cooked egg with gooey yellow, on the hard side, infused with a variety of delicious flavors.

Toppings: Lots of negi of all kinds, that were not too strong and fitted quite well with the broth. A slice of kamaboko (are actually some kamaboko better than others?). A small slice of nori that was (too) quickly soaked.

Despite the slightly too mild broth, this ramen is simply excellent, and not far from the perfect equilibrium. Very much recommended.

More info on ramendb.

Other review: Friends in ramen (for the noko ramen)

Mugen (Osaka-shi, Fukushima-ku)

中華そば 無限
ちゅうかそば むげん
Chuuka Soba Mugen

Niboshi soba: 16 / 20
(煮干そば)

Ben (from Friends in Ramen) had informed me about the Osaka Ra-Sai, a ramen festival that would last four months (from early February to the end of May), and during which you have to visit sixteen ramenya. I’m generally not a big fan of this kind of commitment-fostering event, but when looking at the shops that were participating, I saw many tempting places I had never heard about before. And here we are with Ben at Mugen, on the very first day of the operation, at the opening time!

Mugen offer quite a few different specialties: shrimp shio, chuka soba, niboshi ramen and even abura soba. I wanted to try all of them, obviously, but I went with the niboshi (and Ben with the chuka soba).

Broth: Ah, the delicious niboshi scent! One of the best niboshi broth I ever had, nothing less (and Ben's pungent shoyu broth was also quite good).

Noodles: Interesting shape, they were a bit flat and had the right texture.

Meat: What a letdown! A very insignificant slice of meat that felt as if it had been artifically put together. And a slice of chicken, barely cooked and equally pointless.

Egg: Two halves of a very runny egg. Good yolk, but quite soft, and with a tasteless white part.

Toppings: A long branch of bamboo - it may not have been menma, as it did not have a taste of preserved food; quite refreshing. The negi also fitted very well with the broth, as it usually does with niboshi.

Overall, a bowl that shines for its broth and could have been great without its very disappointing meat. Ramen-cooks over the world, please dare trying meatless ramen instead of using such industrial sh*t! The planet and our tastebuds will thank you.

More info on ramendb.