Noodles ── Ramen
Taiwan Ramen
Nagoya's chili-laced minced pork ramen
Soy broth fired with chili and garlic under seasoned minced pork. Born in Nagoya — not found in Taiwan.
- Origin: Aichi Nagoya
- Shoyu — soy sauce
- About 270 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Noodles rest on a bed of bean sprouts at the bottom of the bowl, topped with a fiery red mound of garlicky minced pork, then drowned in a hot chicken-based soy broth. The pork is stir-fried hard with chili, so the heat hits the back of the throat from the very first bite. Garlic chives add a green sharpness and scallion a touch of sweetness, both trailing in right behind the burn. The noodles themselves are medium-thick and straight, built to carry the spicy topping.
How it's made
The key is said to be frying minced pork hard in oil steeped with garlic, then building a chili-laced sauce around it. Bean sprouts go into the bowl first to soak up heat and spice, followed by boiled noodles and then the chili mince on top. Scalding chicken-soy broth is poured in last, and the dish is eaten without stirring the topping in right away, letting the heat spread gradually through the bowl.
Why it took this shape
One account holds that a shop owner from Taiwan, recalling the danzai noodles of his hometown, reworked the dish in Nagoya with a much heavier hand on the chili. Danzai noodles themselves are not spicy, and the heat is said to have been added to please local customers. In other words, this bowl isn't Taiwanese food transplanted whole — it was remade for a Nagoya audience, which is exactly the paradox behind a dish called "Taiwan ramen" that doesn't exist in Taiwan.
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
Contrast
- Katsuura TantanmenA soy soup flooded with chili oil, onion and minced pork — built to warm divers coming out of the sea.
- Tenri RamenA soy broth loaded with stir-fried hakusai cabbage, garlic and a spicy edge.
- RamenAn umbrella term for the ramen styles shaped by cold-climate Hokkaido — Sapporo's miso, Hakodate's shio, and Asahikawa's shoyu with its aromatic oil cap — each said to reflect local conditions.
- Korai-kei RamenA ramen lineage said to have spread from one shop founded in Chikusa, Nagoya. Its milky-looking broth, simmered for hours from chicken bone and dried fish, is surprisingly light, and the style has been carried on by shops that later branched from it.
- Tamagotoji RamenA ramen said to trace back to a food stall in Nakamura, Nagoya, finished with egg poured in and set to a soft, custardy texture by the broth's own heat alone. Long-simmered Mikawa chicken and pork bone broth gains a mellow, silky edge from it.
Also from Aichi
- Funa MisoCrucian carp is simmered slowly with soybeans for around five hours, then finished in a sauce of red miso and coarse sugar. A freshwater fish dish of the Kiso rivers' lower basin, made with fatty winter carp simmered until the bones soften through.
- Gohei MochiFreshly cooked non-glutinous rice is pounded, pressed flat on a skewer, and grilled with a miso glaze. Said to have originated in the mountainous Chubu region, it's traditionally made the night before a festival praying for safety in mountain work.
- Aichi HakozushiVinegared rice is packed into a wooden frame, topped with shrimp, eel, shiitake, and egg arranged diagonally, and pressed. Placing toppings on the diagonal so everyone gets a fair share of each is said to be a feature of the Owari and western Mikawa style, made for celebrations.
- Hebo MeshiAdult and larval giant hornets are simmered sweet and savory, then folded into freshly cooked rice. Said to have served as a prized protein source across the mountains from Shinshu to Okumikawa, it's now more often served as a treat for guests.
- Iga ManjuSweet bean paste is wrapped in rice flour dough, then coated with dyed sticky rice grains. One account ties the name to the grains' resemblance to a chestnut's spiny husk, and in the western Mikawa region it's said to be offered to Hina dolls at the Doll Festival.
- Aichi Miso OdenA pot of sweet red miso sits in the center of the simmering pot, and daikon, tofu, and other ingredients simmered in dashi are dipped into it before eating. While soy-based Kanto-style oden spread in Edo, Aichi is said to have settled on dipping in soybean miso instead.