Noodles ── Ramen
Tsukemen
Tsukemen — thick noodles dipped in a concentrated broth
Thick, springy noodles are dipped into a concentrated soy sauce sauce built on sweetness and acidity, said to have started as staff-meal food at a shop in Nakano before being served to customers as an oversized, showy portion.
- Origin: Tokyo Nakano
- Shoyu — soy sauce
What it's made of
The noodles and dipping broth arrive in separate bowls. The noodles are thick and springy, rinsed in cold water for extra bite. The dipping broth is a concentrated soy sauce base built on animal and seafood stock, seasoned with vinegar and sugar for a sweet-sour edge. Dipping the cold noodles into the hot, concentrated broth and slurping them down creates a sharp contrast between the two. Many shops finish by pouring a diluting broth into the leftover tare to drink.
How it's made
The dish is said to have grown out of a staff meal — leftover noodles dipped in leftover broth and soy sauce during an apprenticeship. Once a shop's owner served this to customers and it caught on, it's said to have been formalized into a proper menu item. Taking a cue from the sweet-and-sour flavor of cold Chinese noodles, the dipping broth was seasoned with vinegar and sugar, and the noodle portion was made larger than a regular bowl of ramen for visual impact — a portion made possible precisely because the broth doesn't have to fill the whole bowl.
Why it took this shape
The widely told account traces it back to a staff meal during apprenticeship — noodles left over from the day, dipped into leftover broth and soy sauce. As it was refined into a dish served to paying customers, the noodle portion, the chew, and the broth's concentration are all said to have been pushed further, until the dish split off as something distinct from ramen. Separating the noodles from the broth — a simple idea — opened up an axis of richness and volume that ordinary ramen doesn't have.
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 Tokyo
- 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.
- Ajitsuke NoriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Anago ZushiConger eel, simmered sweet and savory, is laid over sushi rice and brushed with a reduced glaze called tsume — a staple Edomae topping from a fish that thrived in Tokyo Bay's nutrient-rich waters, its slick skin demanding a sushi chef's careful hand to clean.
- AnmitsuCubes of agar jelly topped with red peas, sweet bean paste, and dark syrup. Said to have begun when a Ginza sweets shop in the early Showa era added its own bean paste to the simpler "mitsumame" — jelly and peas in syrup — marking a point where wagashi met café culture.
- Asakusa shichimiA seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."