Noodles ── Ramen
Hachinohe Ramen
light soy with dried fish and local chicken
A light soy broth of dried fish and local chicken bones, with thin wavy noodles.
- Origin: Aomori Hachinohe
- Shoyu — soy sauce
- About 560 km north of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A light soy broth carries the aroma of dried sardines, layered with depth from local chicken and pork bones, kept restrained enough that the finish stays clean. Thin, hand-rolled wavy noodles carry an easy bite, topped with plain scallion, chashu, and bamboo shoots. It reads as chuka soba in its most old-fashioned, unadorned form.
How it's made
Plenty of niboshi (dried sardines) go into the stock, layered with chicken and pork bone. Keeping the fat restrained lets the sardines' aroma lead, and the noodles are rolled by hand, one portion at a time, into their characteristic thin wave — a small effort said to be part of what gives them their smooth bite.
Why it took this shape
Hachinohe's port has long been known for its sardine catch, and the region's dried sardines have been made from fish landed just offshore. Built from seafood close at hand in a port town, the broth settled into this light soy style. The bowl faded during the 1980s boom in richer ramen styles, but was revived as "the nostalgic old-time flavor" once the shinkansen station opened here, and has held that form since.
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
- Jumonji Chuka SobaThin wavy noodles made without kansui, in a delicate Japanese-stock soy broth.
- Kujira JiruSalted whale blubber is parboiled to render off excess fat, then simmered in a big pot with daikon, carrot and potato — a New Year dish from around Hachinohe's old whaling grounds, said to deepen in flavor over several days.
Related lineage
Also from Aomori
- BekomochiColored strips of glutinous and non-glutinous rice-flour dough are bundled and steamed so each slice reveals a pattern — a Boys' Day treat from rice-poor Shimokita, its designs elaborated around Oma town.
- HittsumiHand-torn pieces of kneaded wheat dough are simmered in a chicken-and-soy broth with carrot and burdock — a dish from the old Nanbu domain spanning southeastern Aomori and northern Iwate, once a rice substitute in lean years.
- KakkeThin buckwheat dough is cut into triangles, simmered with daikon and tofu, and dipped in garlic miso — said to have begun when the Nanbu domain banned fine-cut soba, leaving people to eat the offcuts instead.
- Mame ShitogiMashed boiled green soybeans are kneaded with rice flour and sugar into a log and sliced — a Nanbu-region sweet that stretched scarce rice with beans, once offered to the mountain and harvest gods.
- Aomori ShamorockSaid to be developed by Aomori's livestock experiment station over roughly two decades of research from a shamo and Barred Plymouth Rock cross; reportedly reared about 100 days for cockerels and 120 for hens, 50–60 days longer than a standard broiler.