Noodles ── Ramen
Fujieda Asa Ramen
morning ramen, hot bowl then cold bowl
A town that eats ramen at breakfast — often a hot bowl followed by a cold one.
- Origin: Shizuoka Fujieda
- Shoyu — soy sauce
- About 160 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Known locally as "Shida-style," the basic bowl pairs a light, fish-based soy broth with noodles built for a smooth, easy swallow. Keeping the fat low is what lets the bowl stay light enough even on a just-woken stomach. Locals are also known to follow one hot bowl with a second, chilled one — the "hot-and-cold set" that counts as the connoisseur's way of eating it.
How it's made
Built for morning service, the noodles and broth are kept light and low in fat so the bowl doesn't feel heavy that early in the day. Serving the same soy broth both hot and, chilled down, cold is also said to be a serving style particular to this town. Hot comes first, since the cold bowl's sweetness would otherwise mask the delicate stock in the hot one — and opening early enough to serve it at all is itself part of how this bowl gets made.
Why it took this shape
One story holds that in this tea-growing town, workers in the tea trade started before dawn, and that culture of early starts is said to have pushed morning ramen along. Ramen became the meal eaten once that early work was done, and shops that opened at dawn to serve it took root. A tea industry's working hours, the telling goes, is what created a town that eats ramen for breakfast.
Before you go
- How to read a ticket machineShops that use a ticket machine (shokken-ki) often place their most popular items in a similar spot.
- Cash-only shops are commonEspecially at ramen shops, it's common to find places that only accept cash — often through a ticket machine.
- Foods to look for in summerA guide to foods often seen in Japan around summer — eel on the Day of the Ox, hiyashi chuka, somen, shaved ice, edamame with beer, and hamo — with rough pointers for finding them.
Dishes in the same style
- Aizu RamenFlat, thick hand-made noodles in a clear soy broth. Said to trace back to a Aizuwakamatsu diner owner bringing home a taste learned in Yokohama — a second soy ramen lineage that grew up apart from Kitakata's, in the same Aizu region.
- Edokei RamenA soy ramen topped with a knob of bright red chili miso built on garlic and garlic chives. Stirred in gradually as you eat, it turns a mild bowl steadily richer and spicier — a specialty of Akita City.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- Hachioji RamenSoy broth strewn with chopped raw onion, its sweetness drawn out by the surface oil.
- Shida-kei RamenA soy ramen lineage from the Shida area around Fujieda and Yaizu, built on a fat-trimmed, clear pork-bone broth sharpened with bonito dashi. Shops modeling themselves on one said to date to the Taisho era, customers often order a hot and a cold bowl together.
Also from Shizuoka
- Abekawa MochiFresh-pounded rice cake is dusted in soybean flour mixed with sugar. Named for the Abe River, it's said to have been famous among Tokaido travelers as a teahouse specialty and to appear in the travel novel Tokaidochu Hizakurige.
- BokumeshiSteamed eel and shaved burdock are simmered together and folded into freshly cooked rice. Its name is said to trace to oversized eels unfit for sale, used in staff meals at eel farms along the Oi River — a mixed rice dish of the region.
- Fuji KinkaBred by Shizuoka Prefecture by crossing its own Duroc line, Fujirock, with Jinhua, a rare breed from China's Zhejiang province — found only in Shizuoka. Said to combine Jinhua's tenderness with Fujirock's marbling.
- Fujinomiya YakisobaIt grew up as a postwar snack at Fujinomiya's candy shops and okonomiyaki stalls. Its identity rests on three local staples: chewy steamed noodles, pork-lard cracklings called nikukasu, and a sardine-powder topping called dashiko.
- GawaRaw bonito is minced and mixed into a chilled miso broth with cucumber, pickled plum, and shiso. Its name is said to come from the "gawa-gawa" sound of stirring miso into ice water aboard a fishing boat — originally a summer meal made at sea.
- Gennari ZushiVinegared rice packed with sweet-simmered carrot is pressed in a mold and topped with pink and white flaked golden eye snapper. Made for weddings and coming-of-age celebrations, its name is said to come from how filling — gennari, or wearying — just eating it could be.