Noodles ── Ramen
Hiroshima Tsukemen
Hiroshima Tsukemen — chilled noodles dipped in a spicy soy sauce
Chilled Chinese noodles dipped into a spicy soy-based sauce — a tsukemen said to have originated in Hiroshima. Boiled vegetables and a boiled egg are served alongside, and one account traces it to a Chinese restaurant in Hachobori, now a fixture of the city's noodle culture.
- Origin: Hiroshima City, Hiroshima
- Shoyu — soy sauce
- About 680 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
The dipping sauce is soy-based, built up with chili, chili oil, vinegar, and sesame into a spicy blend. Chinese noodles are chilled in cold water, then dipped into the hot, spicy sauce to eat. Boiled cabbage and a boiled egg are served alongside — a different lineup from the chashu-heavy tsukemen common in the Tokyo area. Spice levels vary by shop, and many let diners adjust further with vinegar or chili oil left on the table.## How it's made The noodles are boiled, rinsed firm in cold water, then dipped into a hot sauce carrying both sourness and heat. Vinegar is kept assertive to keep the aftertaste light, a balance meant to hold up appetite even in summer. Boiled vegetables and egg are served on a separate plate, and eating moves back and forth between noodles, sauce, and vegetables. Noodle portions are often selectable, and finishing by drinking the sauce diluted with broth — a custom known as "noodle bath" — has become part of the ritual.## Why it took this shape One account traces it to a Chinese restaurant in Hachobori, central Hiroshima, that served something close to a summer-only chilled noodle dish, then called "reimen." A shop that inherited the recipe began offering it year-round, and from there it's said to have settled into Hiroshima's Chinese-noodle culture as a dish for any season. Becoming a dish eaten year-round is said to have helped more shops in Hiroshima City grow into dedicated specialists.
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
Also from Hiroshima
- Anago MeshiConger eel, grilled kabayaki-style, is sliced and layered over rice cooked in dashi—a dish from Miyajima. It uses "Seto anago," prized for the fat that fast currents help build into the fish, and is said to have begun in 1901 as a bento sold at Miyajimaguchi station.
- AzumaSardine-like mamakari, cured in vinegar, is pressed onto seasoned okara instead of vinegared rice in this coastal sushi. It is said to have begun as a way to stretch scarce rice by substituting the cheap, plentiful soy pulp, and was served at festivals and New Year's gatherings.
- Bishu NabeChicken, gizzard, and pork are simmered with nothing more than salt, pepper, and sake in this hot pot from Saijo, one of Japan's noted brewing towns. It is said to have begun as a simple meal cooked by sake brewers between batches, seasoned lightly so as not to dull their palate for tasting.
- EbamakiRice is tossed with Hiroshima-na pickle, bonito flakes, and sesame, then rolled in toasted nori—a roll from Hiroshima's Eba district, long known for seaweed cultivation. The ends are sometimes tucked shut so it can be eaten one-handed while rowing, a food born for nori fishermen working on the water.
- Fuchu-yakiA Fuchu, Hiroshima take on okonomiyaki that swaps sliced pork belly for ground beef or pork worked right into the batter, so the meat's flavor is said to come through evenly in every bite.
- GansuFish paste coated in panko and fried, a Kure, Hiroshima specialty. Said to have been devised in the postwar 1940s as a way to use leftover fish paste from kamaboko production, an unusual pairing of fried fish cake and cutlet-style crumb.