Noodles ── Ramen
Tsuruoka Bushikei Ramen
Tsuruoka Bushikei Ramen — soy ramen layered with dried-fish stock
A soy broth that layers dried-fish stock — bonito, sōda-bushi, flying fish — over a pork- or chicken-bone base. A soy ramen lineage from around Tsuruoka, Yamagata, carrying the Shōnai coast's dried-goods culture.
- Origin: Yamagata Tsuruoka
- Shoyu — soy sauce
- About 340 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
Beneath the surface of the broth lingers the aroma of dried fish — bonito, sōda-bushi, flying fish. Several shops in and around Tsuruoka City layer a stock blended from these dried flakes over an animal-based stock, finished with soy tare into an amber broth. Rather than a simple seafood-and-pork-bone mix, this lineage is said to build depth by working several different dried flakes at once. Medium-thick wavy noodles carry the broth well.
How it's made
Pork bone or chicken frame simmers for hours as the base stock, while several kinds of dried flake — bonito, sōda-bushi, flying fish among them — are steeped separately; the two are combined and finished with soy tare. The mix of flakes, their ratio, and how long they're steeped vary from shop to shop, so even bowls that share the label 'bushikei' carry a different edge each time. Building the stock on two tracks at once, animal and fish, is the shared backbone across this lineage.
Why it took this shape
The Shōnai coast has long been a center of flying-fish fishing, and a culture of making dried flakes and preserved goods is said to run deep here. Within Tsuruoka's food culture, facing the sea, more shops are thought to have combined the dried fish already close at hand with animal-based stock to build a ramen, gradually forming the group now called bushikei. Rather than letting seafood stock stand alone, layering it onto pork bone or chicken frame for extra weight reads as a combination true to Shōnai's dried-goods culture.
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
Also from Yamagata
- Akayu Karamiso RamenMiso ramen with a knob of chili miso in the center, dissolved gradually to shift the flavor.
- Akebi no Miso ZumeyakiThe bittersweet rind of the akebia fruit is stuffed with minced meat and maitake mushroom simmered in miso and sugar, tied with kitchen string, and grilled. Elsewhere in Japan the white pulp is what gets eaten, but Yamagata is said to hold onto the unusual custom of eating the rind instead.
- DongarajiruWinter cod caught in the coldest weeks goes into a miso soup head to tail, innards included — said to trace back to fishermen's cooking on the Shonai coast. The liver's richness carries the flavor, and the traditional way adds only a scrap of rock nori, no scallion.
- Hatahata no YuageHatahata, scaleless sailfin sandfish that crowd the Shonai coast to spawn, are boiled whole and eaten with nothing more than grated daikon and soy sauce — a simple winter fish dish. With no scales to remove, it is said to have become a fixture of Shonai's autumn and winter table.
- Hyoboshi no NimonoPurslane, called hyo, is picked in summer, boiled, and sun-dried into a keeping food, then rehydrated and simmered with shirataki, carrot, and fried tofu for New Year. The name is said to be played on for luck — a wish that something good might happen, hyotto, this year.
- ImoniTaro, beef, konnyaku, and scallion simmer together in a soy-based autumn hot pot said to trace to boatmen on the Mogami River, who cooked taro and dried cod on the riverbank while waiting out the delays of cargo transport. On the Shonai coast the same dish turns to pork and miso.