Noodles ── Ramen
Toufu Ramen
Toufu Ramen — a gentle soy broth topped with tofu and minced pork from Iwatsuki
Said to have started as a cook's staff meal at a restaurant in Iwatsuki Castle Ruins Park, this tofu ramen sits in a light chicken-based soy broth, topped with a gently thickened sauce of tofu and ground pork, kept mild rather than spicy.
- Origin: Saitama Saitama (Iwatsuki Ward)
- Shoyu — soy sauce
- About 30 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
A light, chicken-based soy broth is topped with a glossy sauce of diamond-cut silken tofu and ground pork bound in soy. The tofu is cut to a custom order so it holds together, settling into the bowl with a soft, slippery texture intact. No doubanjiang is used, and chili oil appears only for a trace of aroma, so it carries almost none of mapo tofu's heat. The noodle is a medium to medium-thin curly one, with wakame and scallion for color.
How it's made
Custom-order silken tofu is cut into diamonds and added to the sauce just before it would fall apart. The sauce binds tofu and ground pork in a soy base, and keeping it mild rather than spicy is said to be the key decision — one said to follow the original aim of making a bowl that children and elderly diners alike could enjoy. At the founding restaurant, the dish is said to have started as a staff meal one of the cooks made for himself, until the restaurant's founder tasted it and decided to put it on the menu — originally under the name "tofu soba."
Why it took this shape
One account holds that in 1970, a cook handling the Chinese-food side of a restaurant inside Iwatsuki Castle Ruins Park reworked a tofu dish he'd been making for his own staff meal into a bowl of ramen. That a meal meant for the kitchen staff rose straight to the signature dish says something about how open this restaurant's food culture was. Within the diner culture of Iwatsuki, a town that grew up around its castle, a simple, offhand idea is said to have grown into a bowl that has lasted for decades.
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
Also from Saitama
- Sakekasu Miso RamenA winter-only ramen from Ageo City, where sake lees from a long-running local brewery are worked into a Chinese restaurant's miso broth. The lees' depth and aroma layer over the miso's savoriness, leaving a mellow finish that warms the body in the cold months.
- Dojo NiPond loach caught in the paddies of eastern Saitama, simmered sweet and savory with shaved burdock, from a land fed by the Arakawa and Tone rivers. Rich in nutrients, it was valued as a tonic and a food for pregnant women.
- Gyoda Furai"Furai" from around Gyoda, Saitama, despite its name, isn't fried — it's grilled. Chopped scallion and pork go on a wheat-flour batter cooked on a griddle, an okonomiyaki-like snack said to have caught on with the women working the town's tabi-sock factories.
- Higashimatsuyama YakitoriPork cheek grilled over charcoal and brushed with a spicy miso sauce.
- HiyajiruSesame and miso ground in a mortar, mixed with summer vegetables like cucumber and shiso, then chilled with cold water. It serves as a dipping broth for udon in noodle-loving Saitama, and Kawajima town calls it suttate.
- Iga ManjuA sweet bean bun wrapped in red rice and steamed, said to originate in Konosu. Named for its resemblance to a spiky chestnut burr, it balances a sweet-salty flavor with a chewy bite.