Noodles ── Ramen
Nagahama Ramen
Nagahama Ramen — the fish-market bowl behind Hakata's thin noodle
A pork-bone ramen that grew up beside Fukuoka's fish market. The 1954 shop Ganso Nagahamaya is said to have pushed the broth toward a thick, cloudy white, and the style is often named as a root of Hakata's ultra-thin noodle and kaedama refill culture.
- Origin: Fukuoka Fukuoka (Nagahama, Chuo Ward)
- Tonkotsu — pork bone
- About 890 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A milky white pork-bone broth pairs with startlingly thin, straight noodles. Built for eating fast between auctions, the noodles are thin enough to cook in seconds, while the broth is brewed strong enough to draw out bone flavor in a short time. Toppings stay spare — chashu, scallion, red pickled ginger — so nothing competes with the noodle-and-broth combination itself. Ordering extra noodles alone, kaedama, is part of how this bowl is eaten.
How it's made
Pork bones are boiled hard and long until the broth emulsifies into cloudy white, then the ultra-thin noodles are boiled only briefly before joining it. One account holds that in 1952 the shop Ganso Nagahamaya, taking a cue from the milky broth of Nagasaki champon, pushed its tonkotsu broth toward a richer, thicker style. The custom of ordering extra noodles alone — kaedama — is also said to have spread from how this district ate. Diners can specify noodle firmness and broth richness in fine detail, a habit said to have been honed here.
Why it took this shape
Nagahama was a fish-market district, and the brokers working it had only short breaks between auctions. A bowl that cooked fast and finished fast is said to have driven the noodle toward extreme thinness and the whole meal toward quick service. A practical bowl honed in a market town slightly apart from central Hakata is said to have become the base for what later came to be known widely as Hakata 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
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Fukuoka
- Abutte KamoSmall damselfish are salted overnight, then grilled whole, scales and innards left on — a bony fish often passed over elsewhere, but said to have caught on in Hakata Bay after a Meiji-era glut led someone to salt and grill the excess.
- Achara ZukeWhite melon, eggplant, and lotus root are pickled in a sweet vinegar spiked with red chili — the name is said to trace to the Portuguese 'achar', carried in through Hakata Bay's old trade, and an odd number of vegetables is used for Obon hospitality.
- Amagi no KawatakeA rare wild freshwater algae, found only in the Kogane River in Asakura, is dressed with sweet or three-flavor vinegar — said to have once been presented to the shogun, and now conservation efforts continue as it's listed as endangered.
- Beta MochiWheat dough is flattened, steamed, and topped with soybean flour or sweet red bean paste — named, it's said, for its resemblance to a flat local sole called 'beta', and tied to the feast marking the end of rice planting.
- Kabocha no Dango JiruA giant local pumpkin from Buzen's Mikkado district is simmered soft, then torn wheat dumplings are dropped in — the pumpkin, said to trace some 450 years back to Portuguese traders, was once a lifeline in leaner years.
- ChanraaA noodle dish said to have started at a diner in Moji, Kitakyushu. Chanpon-style noodles go into a Japanese dried-sardine broth closer to udon than to the original pork-and-seafood soup, devised, it's said, for a student who wanted Nagasaki champon but couldn't afford it.