I always wondered how ramen came about. Intuition tells me that it may have Chinese roots. Sometimes, when Singaporeans describe a good soupy bak chor mee, they say it is like ramen. I was also similarly inclined, but just learned in Japan that it is a misnomer.
The precursor of Japanese ramen is another Chinese noodle dish.
We went to the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum in Yokohama with this question in mind. Opened in 1994, it is a museum of ramen history and artefacts, a ramen lab, and the most popular part, a collection of some twenty well known ramen restaurants (which are here on rotation basis). The restaurants emulate an old Japanese street, so the atmosphere and vibes were nicely nostalgic but the place was very crowded when we were there.
Staff manually update the queue times of some of the ramen restaurants (ramenya).
We zeroed in on Rairaiken 淺草 來々軒 which is credited as Japan's first ramenya founded in Tokyo's Asakusa neighbourhood in 1910. This Rairaiken is a recreation by the Ramen Museum in consultation with Rairaiken descendants as the original restaurant in Asakusa had closed in 1976.
We waited (actually buddy stood in line 🙏 while I went roaming around the museum 🤭 ) about 45 minutes before we were seated. It is not unusual to wait two hours or more at popular eating places in Japan.
When our ramen arrived, it looked distinctly like char siew wanton mee 叉烧云吞面. Its slender noodles in a brown soupy broth topped with roast pork slices, stalks of bamboo shoot and sprinkled with tiny bits of chopped scallion.
There's even wanton 云吞 but as an option at additional cost.
I like Rairaiken's soup more than what I have tried in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Guangzhou wanton mee.
It had a fuller body, with deep layers of robust umami and savouriness from various proteins and shoyu (soy sauce). A little greasy but I emptied my bowl to the last drop.
A peek at the huge steamy drum of soup, I could see it overflowing and bubbling with pork, chicken and fish stewing inside.
The noodles were smooth, slightly thicker than our wanton mee, heavier but done soft al dente with just a subtle crunch left. (Maybe I took too long to take pictures 🤭) The strands picked up the umami savoury flavours from the soup well. It was slurpy delicious 😋
This is deja vu for me as my childhood neighbour was a wanton mee hawker who made his own egg noodles every night in his tiny public housing rental flat. The neighbourhood kids took turns to bounce on that fat bamboo pole. For us kids, it was fun but I saw from first hand how the noodles were handmade from scratch with flour and eggs.
Rairaiken's pioneering ramen has char siew just like our wanton mee char siew. Almost all lean, fibrous, chewy, and slightly savoury.
It is what it is, Cantonese style roast pork or char siew hanging in Rairaiken's window.
The Japanese still call it chasiu but most contemporary Japanese versions now have more fat, soft and are braised instead of roasted.
The wanton was mostly velvety skin (wrap) with a very small knob of minced pork inside. Yeah, the traditional wanton but sans the sesame seed oil taste and smell of the Chinese version.
They also have siew mai 燒賣 steamed pork dumpling not very different from ours but nearly double the size.
If you are a ramen fan and are in Yokohama, it is worth adding the Ramen Museum and Rairaiken to your itinerary. There is entrance fees charged but seniors 60 years old and above (foreigners included) enjoy a discount.
Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum
Address: 2 Chome-14-21 Shinyokohama, Kohoku Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa 222-0033, Japan
Nearest MRT: 10 minutes walk from Shin-Yokohama station
Tel: +81 45 471 0503
Hours: 11am - 9pm
Written by Tony Boey on 7 Jan 2025
I went there too! And ate 3 different bowls from 3 different places!
ReplyDeleteSo... The origin is wtm rather than bcm... So origin of wtm is Guangzhou right? 🤔🤔🤔
ReplyDeletei’ve tried chinese restaurants soya sauce broth noodles in china. i feel they became soba / udon in japan. no oil. the first ramen, according to japan, was a salt based chicken stock which, as far as i know isn’t a chinese thing. i prefer to believe it is champon. chinese fried soup noodles. the debate continues.
ReplyDelete