Ramen

The word ramen is a Japanese borrowing of the Mandarin Chinese lāmiàn (拉麵, 'pulled noodles').[2][3] However, historian Barak Kushner argues that this borrowing occurred retroactively and that various independent Japanese corruptions of Chinese words had already led to Japanese people calling this Chinese noodle dish "ramen".[4] One theory suggests that the Japanese mistook the Chinese particles le (了) or la (啦, a contraction of 了啊)[4] for a "ra" sound when Chinese cooks would announce hăo le (好了) to communicate that a dish was complete. The Japanese then appended the word men (麵, meaning 'noodle') to the "ra" to create the word ramen.[5] Early ramen or ramen-like dishes went by different names, such as Nankin soba (南京そば, literally 'Nanjing soba', named after the city which was the then capital of China), Shina soba (支那そば, literally 'Chinese soba'), or Chūka soba (中華そば, also meaning 'Chinese soba').[6][4][5] Until the 1950s, ramen was most commonly called Shina soba, but today Chūka soba or just ramen (ラーメン) are more common, as the word 支那 (Shina, meaning 'China') has acquired a pejorative connotation through its association with Japanese imperialism.[7]

Ramen is a Japanese adaptation of Chinese wheat noodle soups.[8][9][10][11][12] It is first recorded to have appeared in Yokohama Chinatown in the early 20th century.[13][14] Although the ramen takes its name from lāmiàn, it does not actually evolve from the northern Chinese dish of lamian. The noodles used in ramen known as chūkamen are cut rather than hand-pulled.[4] The ramen is derived from southern Chinese noodle dishes such as the char siu tangmian of Guangdong and the rousi tangmian[15][5][6] of Jiangnan.[16] This is reflective of Yokohama Chinatown's demographics, as most Chinese settlers in the district came from the cities of Guangzhou and Shanghai.[17][18]

One theory says that ramen was introduced to Japan during the 1660s by the Chinese neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Shunsui who served as an advisor to Tokugawa Mitsukuni after he became a refugee in Japan to escape Manchu rule. Mitsukuni became the first Japanese person to eat ramen. Most historians reject this theory as a myth created by the Japanese to embellish the origins of ramen.[19]

According to historians, the more plausible theory is that ramen was introduced to Japan in the late 19th[8][20] or early 20th centuries by Chinese immigrants living in Yokohama Chinatown.[13][14] By 1900, restaurants serving Chinese cuisine from Guangzhou and Shanghai offered a simple dish of noodles, a few toppings, and a broth flavored with salt and pork bones. Many Chinese living in Japan also pulled portable food stalls, selling ramen and gyōza dumplings to workers. By the mid-1900s, these stalls used a type of a musical horn called a charumera (チャルメラ, from the Portuguese charamela) to advertise their presence, a practice some vendors still retain via a loudspeaker and a looped recording. By the early Shōwa period, ramen had become a popular dish when eating out.

According to ramen expert Hiroshi Osaki, the first specialized ramen shop opened in 1910, in Asakusa, Tokyo, and was named Rairaiken (来々軒). The Japanese owner employed twelve Cantonese cooks from Yokohama's Chinatown and served the ramen arranged for Japanese customers.[21][22] Early versions were wheat noodles in broth topped with char siu.[8]

Ramen stall in Tokyo

After Japan's defeat in World War II, the American military occupied the country from 1945 to 1952.[8] In December 1945, Japan recorded its worst rice harvest in 42 years,[8][23] which caused food shortages as Japan had drastically reduced rice production during the war as production shifted to colonies in China and Formosa island.[8] The US flooded the market with cheap wheat flour to deal with food shortages.[8] From 1948 to 1951, bread consumption in Japan increased from 262,121 tons to 611,784 tons,[8] but wheat also found its way into ramen, which most Japanese ate at black market food vendors to survive as the government food distribution system ran about 20 days behind schedule.[8] Although the Americans maintained Japan's wartime ban on outdoor food vending,[8] flour was secretly diverted from commercial mills into the black markets,[8] where nearly 90 percent of stalls were under the control of gangsters related to the yakuza who extorted vendors for protection money.[8] Thousands of ramen vendors were arrested during the occupation.[8]

In the same period, millions of Japanese troops returned from China and continental East Asia from their posts in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Some of them would have been familiar with wheat noodles.[8] By 1950 wheat flour exchange controls were removed and restrictions on food vending loosened, which further boosted the number of ramen vendors: private companies even rented out yatai starter kits consisting of noodles, toppings, bowls, and chopsticks.[8] Ramen yatai provided a rare opportunity for small-scale postwar entrepreneurship.[8] The Americans also aggressively advertised the nutritional benefits of wheat and animal protein.[8] The combination of these factors caused wheat noodles to gain prominence in Japan's rice-based culture.[8] Gradually, ramen became associated with urban life.[8]

In 1958, instant noodles were invented by Momofuku Ando, the Taiwanese-Japanese founder and chairman of Nissin Foods. Named the greatest Japanese invention of the 20th century in a Japanese poll,[24] instant ramen allowed anyone to make an approximation of this dish simply by adding boiling water.

Beginning in the 1980s, ramen became a Japanese cultural icon and was studied around the world. At the same time, local varieties of ramen were hitting the national market and could even be ordered by their regional names. A ramen museum opened in Yokohama in 1994.[25]

Today ramen is one of Japan's most popular foods, with Tokyo alone containing around 5,000 ramen shops,[8] and more than 24,000 ramen shops across Japan.[26] Tsuta, a ramen restaurant in Tokyo's Sugamo district, received a Michelin star in December 2015.[26]

Fresh ramen noodles

Most noodles are made from four basic ingredients: wheat flour, salt, water, and kansui, derived from the Chinese jiǎnshuǐ (鹼水), a type of alkaline mineral water containing sodium carbonate and usually potassium carbonate, as well as sometimes a small amount of phosphoric acid. Although ramen noodles and Udon noodles are both made with wheat and are similar, they are different kinds of noodle.

The kansui is the distinguishing ingredient in ramen noodles, and originated in Inner Mongolia, where some lakes contain large amounts of these minerals and whose water is said to be perfect for making these noodles. Making noodles with kansui lends them a yellowish hue as well as a firm texture. Eggs may also be substituted for kansui. Some noodles are made with neither eggs nor kansui and should only be used for yakisoba, as they have a weaker structure and are more prone to soaking up moisture and becoming extremely soft when served in soup.

Ramen comes in various shapes and lengths. It may be thick, thin, or even ribbon-like, as well as straight or wrinkled.

Traditionally, ramen noodles were made by hand, but with growing popularity many ramen restaurants prefer to use noodle-making machines to meet the increased demand and improve quality. Automatic ramen-making machines imitating manual production methods have been available since the mid-20th century produced by such Japanese manufacturers as Yamato MFG. and others.[27]

Ramen in tonkotsu soup

Ramen soup is generally made from stock based on chicken or pork, combined with a variety of ingredients such as pork bones, katsuobushi (skipjack tuna flakes), niboshi (dried baby sardines),[28] beef bones, shiitake, onions, and kombu (kelp). Some modern ramen broths can also be vegetable-based. Tare is often added to broth to make the soup.

• Tonkotsu (豚骨, 'pork bone'; not to be confused with tonkatsu) soup is broth with a typically translucent white colored appearance. It also goes by the name paitan (白湯), similar to the Chinese baitang (白湯), it has a thick broth made from boiling pork bones, fat, and collagen over high heat for many hours, which suffuses the broth with a hearty pork flavor and a creamy consistency that rivals milk, melted butter or gravy (depending on the shop). Although tonkotsu is merely a kind of broth, some people consider tonkotsu ramen (specialty of Kyushu, its birthplace) a distinct flavor category. [29]
• Torigara (鶏がら, 'chicken bone') soup based on chicken bone broth originated mainly in Tokyo. It is often used as a base for salt and shōyu ramen.[30]

Shio ramen

Shōyu ramen

Miso ramen

Karē ramen

The resulting combination is generally divided into several categories. Although newer and older variations often make this categorization less clear-cut, a description of said old variations is as follows:

• Shio (塩, 'salt') ramen is the oldest of the four types.[29] It has a pale, clear, yellowish broth made with plenty of salt and any combination of chicken, vegetables, fish, and seaweed. Occasionally pork bones are also used, but they are not boiled as long as they are for tonkotsu ramen, so the soup remains light and clear. Chāshū is sometimes swapped for lean chicken meatballs, and pickled plums and kamaboko (a slice of processed fish roll sometimes served as a frilly white circle with a pink or red spiral called narutomaki) are popular toppings as well. Noodle texture and thickness varies among shio ramen, but they are usually straight rather than curly. Hakodate ramen is a well-known version of shio ramen in Japan.
• Shōyu (醤油, 'soy sauce') ramen has a clear brown broth, based on a chicken and vegetable (or sometimes fish or beef) stock with plenty of soy sauce added resulting in a soup that is tangy, salty, and savory yet still fairly light on the palate. Shōyu ramen usually has curly noodles rather than straight ones, although this is not always the case. It is often adorned with marinated bamboo shoots or menma, scallions, ninjin ('carrot'), kamaboko ('fish cakes'), nori ('seaweed'), boiled eggs, bean sprouts or black pepper; occasionally the soup will also contain chili oil or Chinese spices, and some shops serve sliced beef instead of the usual chāshū.
• Miso (味噌) ramen reached national prominence around 1965. This uniquely Japanese ramen, which was developed in Sapporo Hokkaido, features a broth that combines copious miso and is blended with oily chicken or fish broth – and sometimes with tonkotsu or lard – to create a thick, nutty, slightly sweet and very hearty soup. Miso ramen broth tends to have a robust, tangy flavor, so it stands up to a variety of flavorful toppings: spicy bean paste or tōbanjan (豆瓣醤), butter and corn, leeks, onions, bean sprouts, ground pork, cabbage, sesame seeds, white pepper, chilli and chopped garlic are common. The noodles are typically thick, curly, and slightly chewy.
• Karē (カレー, 'curry') ramen is a relative newcomer, cooked with curry soup. In Japan, several cities claim to be its place of origin. The city of Muroran claims it originated there in 1965[31] (see also Muroran curry ramen), while the city of Sanjō claims to have had karē ramen for over 80 years,[32] and the city of Katori also claims to have been the site of its origin.[33] Curry soup is mainly made with pork bones and vegetables and is seasoned with curry. The noodles are thick and curly. Toppings include chāshū, wakame, and bean sprouts.

Gomoku ramen, sometimes called Gomoku soba

After basic preparation, ramen can be seasoned and flavored with any number of toppings, including but not limited to:[34]

• Chāshū (sliced barbecued or braised pork)
• Negi (green onion)
• Takana-zuke (Pickled and seasoned mustard leaves)
• Seasoned (usually salted) boiled egg (soy egg, ajitsuke tamago)
• Bean or other sprouts
• Menma (lactate-fermented bamboo shoots)
• Kakuni (braised pork cubes or squares)
• Kikurage (wood ear mushroom)
• Nori (dried seaweed)
• Kamaboko (formed fish paste, often in a pink and white spiral called narutomaki)
• Squid
• Umeboshi (pickled plum)
• Corn
• Butter
• Wakame (a type of seaweed)
• Olive oil
• Sesame oil
• Mayu (black garlic oil)
• Soy sauce
• Other types of vegetables

Seasonings commonly added to ramen are white pepper, black pepper, butter, chili pepper, sesame seeds, and crushed garlic.[35] Soup recipes and methods of preparation tend to be closely guarded secrets.

Most tonkotsu ramen restaurants offer a system known as kae-dama (替え玉), where customers who have finished their noodles can request a "refill" (for a few hundred yen more) to be put into their remaining soup.[36]

In Akihabara, Tokyo, vending machines distribute warm ramen in a steel can known as ramen kan (らーめん缶). It is produced by a popular local ramen restaurant in flavors such as tonkotsu and curry, and contains noodles, soup, menma, and pork. It is intended as a quick snack, and includes a small folded plastic fork.[50]

In October 2010, an emoji was approved for Unicode 6.0 U+1F35C 🍜 STEAMING BOWL for "Steaming Bowl", that depicts Japanese ramen noodles in a bowl of steaming broth with chopsticks.[51] In 2015, the icon was added to Emoji 1.0.[52]

The Shin-Yokohama Rāmen Museum is a unique museum about ramen, in the Shin-Yokohama district of Kōhoku-ku, Yokohama.[53]

Shin-Yokohama Rāmen Museum

Ramen features prominently in many Japanese anime.

• In Naruto series, ramen is the favourite food of Naruto Uzumaki, the titular character, particularly miso chashu ramen. He frequently dines in a ramen shop called Ichiraku Ramen which is based on a real-life ramen shop.
• In Kaguya-sama: Love is War, ramen is the favourite food of Chika Fujiwara.
• In Komi Can't Communicate the heroine Komi Shouko likes a type of ramen called ramen darou.
• In Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, ramen is one of the themes in a cooking competition. Ryo Kurokiba came up with a French fusion ramen based on soupe de poisson while Megumi Tadokoro developed a unique ramen based on kozuyu and dried vegetables.
• In Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, the protagonist Koizumi possess an immense love for ramen and is always depicted eating all kinds of ramen throughout Japan including at famous ramen shops in real life such as Ippudo and Ichiran.
• In Akame ga Kill, shio ramen is one of Susanoo's 1,000 recipes.