Noodles ── Ramen
Odawara-kei Ramen
Odawara Ramen — dark soy ramen with flat, curly noodles and rolled wontons
A dark, strongly seasoned soy sauce broth paired with flat, curly noodles, often topped with slim, rolled wontons — a bowl said to have taken root at Chinese-style diners in this old castle town.
- Origin: Kanagawa Odawara
- Shoyu — soy sauce
- About 70 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
The broth runs dark, carrying a firm saltiness and depth, with the aroma of the soy tare rising on the first sip. The noodles are flat and curly, said to be shaped specifically to carry the thick broth well. Many shops top the bowl with slim, rolled wontons, their smooth skin and savory ground-meat filling playing well against the strong broth. Char siu and bamboo shoot round out an otherwise simple bowl.
How it's made
The basic method is said to be a pork-bone or chicken-bone stock pushed hard with a dark soy tare, aiming for a broth strong in both color and flavor. Many shops are said to make their own flat, curly noodles, cut to a width that's neither too thick nor too thin so it can stand up to the heavy broth. The wontons are said to be rolled into a long, slim shape before boiling, giving them a different look and bite from the usual square wonton.
Why it took this shape
In Odawara, a castle town with a long commercial history, the strongly flavored bowl is said to have been served to regular customers at Chinese-style diners across town rather than as one shop's signature. The slim, rolled wonton reads as one shop's own touch that spread to its neighbors over time until it settled in as the land's own shape.
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.