Noodles ── Ramen
Sanmamen
soy noodles under a hot moyashi ankake
Noodles blanketed in a scalding bean-sprout ankake, born in Yokohama's Chinese diners.
- Origin: Kanagawa Yokohama
- Shoyu — soy sauce
Lineage
What it's made of
The star of the bowl is the piping-hot ankake draped over the noodles — bean sprouts, napa cabbage, and pork stir-fried and thickened with potato starch, ladled straight onto noodles in a soy or salt broth. The thickened sauce seals in the heat of both noodles and broth, so steam keeps rising until the last bite. Seasoning varies by shop; there's no single fixed recipe.
How it's made
It's said to have started as a staff-meal dish in Chinatown diners, built from the leftovers used to make the pricier pork-and-noodle dish, ru-su-men. In place of that costly meat, cooks stir-fried cheap vegetables like bean sprouts into a hearty ankake for bulk. The idea of piling fresh, crunchy ingredients on top of the noodles became the method itself, and the noodles still sit wrapped in hot vegetable sauce today.
Why it took this shape
One account holds the name is written with characters meaning 'fresh ingredients piled on top,' while some shops use a character for a harbor pier instead. It's said postwar dockworkers in Yokohama wanted a bowl that stayed hot and filling. The thickened ankake holds its steam even against a chilly harbor wind, and stir-frying the vegetables adds bulk and satisfaction. The dish reads as an answer to both harbor labor and harbor weather — it's a bowl that grew out of a town where staying hot was itself the point.
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.