Ramen

Ah, ramen, too good. There’s nothing quite like soup and noodles, especially when it’s cold outside.

We ate ramen twice in Tokyo, once in Odaiba and once in Akihabara.

In Odaiba we went to a place called Yotteko-ya near Sega Joypolis.

Yotteko-ya Ramen

Had this set meal with a bowl of ramen, 4 gyoza, and a bowl of rice.

Ramen and Gyoza set

Not really sure why it includes a bowl of white rice. Gyoza are pretty darn good though. Ended up just pouring some soup into the rice bowl and eating it like that.

Another thing about Japanese ramen is that it comes with what they call “Cha Syuu” (Cha Siu) pork which is much different than the Cha Siu pork Chinese people eat. It’s probably more like Hui Guo pork or Kong Rou than Cha Siu, but whatever. Still good though.

Ramen itself wasn’t bad. They had 3 different soups you could choose from: Original, White (lighter, I think?), and Red (spicy). I think we got the original one, and it was a bit salty, but that’s ramen for ya. I really liked the wood spoon they had though, a bit excessive but definitely unique.

In Akihabara, we ate at this place that let you customize your ramen.

How it works is that you order the ramen (set) you want, then you sit down and they hand you this customization form.

Customization Form

Customization Form in English

On the form you can choose the softness of the noodle, how strong the soup is, how much oil is in the soup, and whether or not they put in welsh onions, hot spices, or roast pork. Also, if you get the deluxe ramen like I did, you can add up to four add-ins like cloud ear mushrooms, seaweed, egg, more roast pork, or fried garlic.

Customized Ramen

Ramen was surprisingly spicy given that I put “average” hot spice, but whatever. Pretty darn good though, probably since I got to pick it how I like it. Noodles were firm, soup was nice and spicy, eggs half-boiled and delicious, and extra meat.