Noodles ── Ramen
Hachioji Ramen
soy broth under a layer of chopped raw onion
Soy broth strewn with chopped raw onion, its sweetness drawn out by the surface oil.
- Origin: Tokyo Hachioji
- Shoyu — soy sauce
- About 40 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
The soy-tare broth carries the depth of pork and chicken bone, with a thin sheen of clear lard across the surface. Piled on top is a generous heap of raw chopped onion, giving each bite a crisp snap and a rush of sweetness. Medium-thin noodles carry both the broth and the onion together, and by the last bites the onion has mellowed into the broth itself. The overall effect is a faintly sweet, unpretentious bowl.
How it's made
The onion goes on raw and uncooked. The oil floating on the broth's surface is said to soften its sharpness while drawing out its sweetness, and that pairing of oil and onion is what's said to define Hachioji ramen. The stock itself — pork and chicken bone with soy tare — is fairly standard; what sets each shop apart is how much onion goes on, and how it's cut.
Why it took this shape
One story credits the previous owner of the shop said to have originated onion-topped ramen here, who encountered the idea on a trip to Hokkaido and then worked out how to tame the onion's sharpness with lard. The town had once thrived on textiles, but as that industry changed it lost any distinct identity of its own — so local volunteers formed the "Hachimen-kai" and rebuilt this already-local bowl into the city's signature dish.
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
- Asahikawa RamenSoy-sauce broth built on seafood and pork bones, topped with lard so it stays hot. A response to the region's severe winters.
- Fujieda Asa RamenA town that eats ramen at breakfast — often a hot bowl followed by a cold one.
- Tokyo RamenA soy-sauce broth built on chicken bones and dried sardines. Long called chuka soba, it is the baseline style.
Also from Tokyo
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Ajitsuke NoriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Anago ZushiConger eel, simmered sweet and savory, is laid over sushi rice and brushed with a reduced glaze called tsume — a staple Edomae topping from a fish that thrived in Tokyo Bay's nutrient-rich waters, its slick skin demanding a sushi chef's careful hand to clean.
- AnmitsuCubes of agar jelly topped with red peas, sweet bean paste, and dark syrup. Said to have begun when a Ginza sweets shop in the early Showa era added its own bean paste to the simpler "mitsumame" — jelly and peas in syrup — marking a point where wagashi met café culture.
- Asakusa shichimiA seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."