Niimi Ramen

The core is a soy-based ramen with wild boar bone and meat in the stock, topped with sliced boar chashu. It's said to taste lighter than pork yet return a firm savor with each bite. Some shops skip boar in the broth and use only boar chashu, or finish the bowl with miso instead of soy. The boar's own fat sweetness meeting the soy tare's saltiness gives it a different profile from an ordinary pork-and-soy ramen.## How it's made Boar bone and meat are simmered a long time to draw out stock while working off any gamey edge, then finished with a soy tare. The boar meat destined for chashu is seasoned, simmered, and sliced the same way pork chashu would be. Niimi's mountain communities have long cooked wild boar in dishes like botan-nabe, and that familiarity carries over into how it's handled here. Because the amount of boar meat available shifts with the hunting season, some shops can only offer the dish part of the year.## Why it took this shape Niimi's mountainous terrain supports a large wild boar population, one that has also damaged local farmland. Boar ramen that a few local shops had quietly served to regulars is said to have proven popular enough that the area began building it up as a local specialty. It's a case of an already-familiar ingredient finding its way into one bowl. Efforts aimed at controlling boar damage are said to have ended up building a local specialty as a side effect.