Noodles ── Ramen
Shimizu Motsu Curry Ramen
Shimizu Motsu Curry Ramen — a postwar port-town fusion of Manchurian curry and simmered offal
A ramen topped with motsu curry, a stewed-offal curry said to have originated in Shimizu, Shizuoka City, blending curry know-how learned in Manchuria with a simmering style reminiscent of Nagoya's dote-ni. Ingredients and curry color vary from shop to shop.
- Origin: Shizuoka Shizuoka (Shimizu Ward)
- Besides shoyu, miso, shio and tonkotsu
- About 140 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Well-simmered offal sits beneath the aroma of a thickened curry. Some shops use only large intestine, others mix in small intestine or tripe, and some add burdock root or konnyaku — the same name covers quite different bowls depending on where you order it. Curry color is said to range from nearly black to pale white, the spice blend itself standing in for each shop's own character.
How it's made
Offal is prepped and then simmered for a long stretch, seasoned with curry powder as it goes. Originally devised as a dish to accompany drinks, laying it over ramen bridges the line between a bar snack and a full bowl of noodles — each shop said to have grown its own version by varying the blend and ingredients, with styles ranging from a dry simmer to something closer to a hot pot.
Why it took this shape
The founder of a shop near Shimizu Station is said to have combined curry know-how learned in Manchuria with a simmering method reminiscent of Nagoya's dote-ni. It spread gradually as a bar snack during the postwar recovery years, taking root as a fixture within the eating-house culture of the port town of Shimizu, memories of two very different places settling into a single dish.
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
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Betokon RamenA garlic-and-chili stamina ramen said to have originated in Ichinomiya, Aichi, devised from a repatriate's memories of Manchurian cooking. Its name is said to come directly from what customers started calling it.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Shizuoka
- Abekawa MochiFresh-pounded rice cake is dusted in soybean flour mixed with sugar. Named for the Abe River, it's said to have been famous among Tokaido travelers as a teahouse specialty and to appear in the travel novel Tokaidochu Hizakurige.
- BokumeshiSteamed eel and shaved burdock are simmered together and folded into freshly cooked rice. Its name is said to trace to oversized eels unfit for sale, used in staff meals at eel farms along the Oi River — a mixed rice dish of the region.
- Fuji KinkaBred by Shizuoka Prefecture by crossing its own Duroc line, Fujirock, with Jinhua, a rare breed from China's Zhejiang province — found only in Shizuoka. Said to combine Jinhua's tenderness with Fujirock's marbling.
- Fujieda Asa RamenA town that eats ramen at breakfast — often a hot bowl followed by a cold one.
- Fujinomiya YakisobaIt grew up as a postwar snack at Fujinomiya's candy shops and okonomiyaki stalls. Its identity rests on three local staples: chewy steamed noodles, pork-lard cracklings called nikukasu, and a sardine-powder topping called dashiko.
- GawaRaw bonito is minced and mixed into a chilled miso broth with cucumber, pickled plum, and shiso. Its name is said to come from the "gawa-gawa" sound of stirring miso into ice water aboard a fishing boat — originally a summer meal made at sea.