Noodles ── Ramen
Misaki Maguro Ramen
Misaki Tuna Ramen — soy ramen built on a maguro-based broth
In Misaki Port, a landing base for offshore tuna boats, a soy sauce ramen is built on a broth drawn from tuna trimmings and bone — a bowl said to have been served for decades at diners along the port.
- Origin: Kanagawa Miura (Misaki)
- Shoyu — soy sauce
- About 60 km south of Tokyo
What it's made of
The defining feature is a broth drawn from tuna trimmings and bone, giving it a flavor distinct from ramen built purely on pork or chicken bone. The broth is rounded out with a soy sauce tare, and the combination of fish stock and soy sauce reads as distinctly a port town's bowl. Some shops also use tuna as a topping, and a shark-fin ramen made from the same port's catch is said to be served alongside it at some counters.
How it's made
The basic method is said to be putting the trimmings and bone left over from processing landed tuna to use as the broth's stock. Because fish stock can carry a strong off-flavor, aromatics and spices are said to be worked in to keep it in check while it simmers. Rounding the broth out with a soy sauce tare is said to sharpen its edges, keeping the stock's distinct character while making the bowl easy to eat.
Why it took this shape
Misaki Port is known as a landing base for offshore tuna fishing boats, and the trimmings and bone left over from processing the catch are said to have been a stock ingredient close at hand for the diners along the port. Some of those diners are said to have kept the same recipe for nearly fifty years — the offshore fishing trade itself, read straight into the shape of a bowl of ramen.
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 Kanagawa
- DoriaButter rice topped with shrimp in cream, covered in white sauce and cheese and baked. Said to have been improvised at a Yokohama hotel for a guest who wasn't feeling well.
- Ebi MayoBattered, fried shrimp are tossed in a sweet mayonnaise-based sauce — said to have begun when a Cantonese chef, unsatisfied with a mayonnaise-dressed shrimp dish he'd eaten in the United States, remade it his own way.
- Gyu NabeA Yokohama-born hot pot of beef, tofu and chrysanthemum greens simmered from the start in a soy or miso-based sauce. Born of the port city's encounter with Western meat-eating culture, it is said to trace to a tavern owner who opened one of the first beef-pot restaurants.
- Harihari-zukeDaikon cut thicker than ordinary kiriboshi strips, dried, then pickled in a soy-based sauce — a Miura Peninsula specialty. Its name is said to echo the crisp "hari-hari" bite, developed in Miura, a daikon-growing region since the Edo period.
- Herahera DangoA confection from Sajima in Yokosuka City, flattened dumplings of wheat or glutinous rice flour coated in sweet bean paste. Offered at the shrine during a summer boat festival to pray for a good catch and good health, it is still shared among family.
- Hiratsuka-kei TanmenA clear, salt-based broth carries a faint edge of acidity, topped with wakame seaweed and chopped onion — a thinner, less thickened bowl than the typical Kanagawa tanmen, said to have taken root among Chinese-style diners in Hiratsuka.