Noodles ── Ramen
Toyama Black
jet-black soy broth built for rice
A jet-black soy broth under cracked pepper — salted to be eaten with rice on the side.
- Origin: Toyama City, Toyama
- Shoyu — soy sauce
- About 260 km northwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Look into the bowl and the broth is almost black with dark soy sauce. Coarsely cracked black pepper adds a sharp accent, and extra-thick straight noodles hold up against the intensity. The first sip lands salty and direct, the kind of bowl that makes you want a side of rice. That rice isn't really a side dish here; it's part of the meal. The saltiness is strong enough that a few sips of broth alone can feel like a course before the noodles even arrive.
How it's made
The broth is built to let dark soy sauce show its full color, diluted only lightly rather than rounded out with a softer stock. Soy's color and salt are pushed to the front rather than blended away, by all accounts a deliberate choice. A heavy dusting of coarse black pepper finishes it, and the extra-thick noodles carry the intensity through to the last bite without it fading. Thickening the noodles seems to be exactly what lets them hold their own against a broth this strong.
Why it took this shape
One account traces it to around 1955, as a bowl made for laborers working on post-war reconstruction. After a day of heavy sweat, a strongly salted meal that could quickly replace lost salt is thought to have been what was needed. Served from a food stall, this bowl is said to have kept its saltiness deliberately strong, built from the start to be eaten alongside a bowl of rice. A ramen that doubles as a side dish for rice reads as a practical answer for bodies worn down by physical labor.
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
- Koriyama BlackA near-black soy broth that drinks milder than it looks.
- Nyuzen Brown RamenA rich broth of secret miso brewed from prefecture-grown rice and soybeans, shrimp extract layered in — devised in 2010 by Nyuzen's chamber of commerce youth division to counter the nationally famous Toyama Black.
Also from Toyama
- Bai no NimonoWhelks from the deep waters of Toyama Bay are simmered whole in their shells — said to appear at celebrations thanks to a play on words suggesting doubled good fortune, with smaller whelks simmered and larger ones eaten raw.
- BekkoMelted agar is seasoned with soy sauce and mirin, then set with egg trailed in like threads — its amber color flecked with egg said to resemble a tortoiseshell hair ornament, giving the dish its name; in the west of the prefecture it goes by "yubeshi" instead.
- BurishabuThin slices of yellowtail are swished briefly through kelp broth, said to cook only the surface while leaving the center rare — versions using Himi's branded winter yellowtail are considered a particularly luxurious cold-weather treat.
- Genge no MisoshiruEelpout, a deep-sea fish covered in a gelatinous layer, is cut into chunks and simmered into a miso soup — long treated as an unwanted bycatch of sweet shrimp fishing, its flavor has since been reappraised and spread beyond the fishing villages that first ate it.
- Himi UdonA hand-stretched udon developed in Himi, Toyama, in the mid-Edo period by adapting somen-making techniques from Wajima. It was once presented to the Kaga domain as tribute.
- Hoonko RyoriA catch-all term for the dishes served at houonko, the memorial gathering held on the death anniversary of Jodo Shinshu's founder — the season's better vegetables and wild greens are said to be set aside for it apart from everyday use, with the devout Gokayama area of Nanto known for hearty stews of dried greens and local tofu.