We must mention ramen after a trip to Japan. Japanese ramen is nothing like the packaged dried block of noodles you find in the grocery store.
Ramen is a Japanese obsession with many regional variations, much like barbecue in the States. Similar to true barbecue, most people don't bother attempting to make real ramen at home because it requires special equipment, messy ingredients, hours and hours of practice, and lots and lots of time. It's all in the broth. Instead, it's better to frequent your favorite ramen shop whenever there's a craving. There are many websites and magazines written by ramen aficionados, dedicated to talking about the thousands of ramen joints in Japan. Try them all until you find your favorite! www.ramenate.com
www.goramen.com
Recently, Chef David Chang of Momofuku in New York City started a magazine called Lucky Peach. An excellent starting point in understanding the cult of ramen is to read the inaugural edition. I also came across a good article by the New York Times, "One Noodle at a Time in Tokyo: Exploring Tokyo through its Ramen Shops" (Author: Matt Gross). A movie called Ramen Girl (Brittany Murphy) actually does a good job of depicting the process involved in learning how to make good ramen and what it means to run a ramen shop.
Ogikubo is actually the birthplace of Tokyo Ramen, which tends to use more fish along with pork in making the broth, than just pork. This makes the broth clearer and lighter, but may be too fishy for those sensitive to the flavor. The 2 famous joints in Ogikubo are Futaba and Haruki-Ya. As CNNGo puts it, "If you could only visit one of the thousands of ramen-ya in Tokyo, Harukiya in Ogikubo should be it." Ogikubo also has a non-traditional ramen shop called Taiyo Ramen where they use tomato and chicken as the soup base. They also top the bowl with unusual ingredients such as cheese, eggplant, garlic, etc. making this place one of my all-time favorite restaurants in the whole wide world. My friends agreed, as they wanted their last meal in Japan to be at Taiyo Ramen.
For our Kansas City friends, the closest place to get real ramen is at the Japanese restaurant Sama Zama in Westport. This place offers the flavors of Japanese homestyle cooking that I grew up with!
