Aizu Nozawa-juku Miso Ramen

The bowl is filled with a thick miso broth built on ground meat and plenty of chopped vegetables, simmered down together. Rather than simply dissolving miso into stock, this lineage is said to draw out the meat and vegetables' own richness over a long simmer, layering flavor on flavor. Medium-thick wavy noodles pick up the broth well, and the bowl comes out hearty and loaded with toppings. A handful of shops in town compete with their own blends, so even under the same name 'Nozawa-juku Miso Ramen,' the impression of heat or sweetness shifts shop to shop.

The basic process is to sauté ground meat and vegetables, combine them with a miso tare, and simmer it all longer to draw out the flavor. The amount and kinds of vegetables, and the miso blend, are each shop's own doing, and a local group of shop owners called the Aizu Nozawa-juku Miso Ramen Association is said to have shared notes and sharpened each shop's own bowl over time. Rather than reaching for costly special ingredients, the weight here falls on simmering ground meat and vegetables — plain, close-at-hand things — with care.

Nishiaizu sits near the Niigata border, known for its deep snow. Nozawa was once a post-town on the Aizu-Nishi highway, a settlement travelers passed through. In a snow country with harsh cold, a thick miso broth built from ground meat and plenty of vegetables is thought to have found favor and been carried forward at the town's diners for more than 30 years. That a dozen-odd shops cluster in a town of under ten thousand people is itself a sign of how deeply this bowl has taken root in local life.