Noodles ── Ramen
Wakkanai Ramen
Wakkanai Ramen — kelp and pork bone, double-stocked against the cold
A ramen from Wakkanai, Japan's northernmost fishing town. A salt version is especially popular, its kelp-and-pork-bone double stock capped with lard, and an unusual topping of wheat gluten cake that soaks up the broth as you eat.
- Origin: Hokkaido Wakkanai
- Shio — salt
- About 1090 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
A double stock of rishiri kelp and pork bone forms the backbone, capped with lard so it doesn't cool. Both salt and soy versions are served, but locally the clear salt broth is the favorite. Alongside the usual char siu, scallion, bamboo shoot and fish cake, the bowl carries an unusual topping: wheat gluten cake.
How it's made
Kelp stock and pork-bone broth are combined into a double stock, then sealed under a layer of lard to hold the heat. Because the gluten cake changes character as it soaks up broth, the flavor shifts as the bowl is eaten. Wavy noodles are built to carry both layers of stock at once.
Why it took this shape
Wakkanai is a fishing town wrapped on three sides by the sea, where the severe cold called for a broth that wouldn't lose its heat. The double stock — kelp from nearby waters, pork bone carried in from inland — and the lard sealing the surface both read as answers to the cold. Even the gluten-cake topping is said to reflect a local habit of making the most of what was on hand.
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
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Hokkaido
- Asahikawa RamenSoy-sauce broth built on seafood and pork bones, topped with lard so it stays hot. A response to the region's severe winters.
- Asahikawa HorumenA local dish that crosses Asahikawa's two soul foods — soy-sauce ramen and grilled pork offal. Pork offal, cleaned and prepped to remove its odor, sits on a soy-based broth. It was devised in Asahikawa in the 2010s.
- Gatatan RamenAshibetsu's local dish gatatan, turned into ramen: a salt broth thickened with potato starch, loaded with vegetables, meat and seafood, and finished with a stream of beaten egg.
- Bibai no TorimeshiChicken and onion are cooked into rice with soy sauce, sugar, and sake — said to trace back to a Meiji-era landowner in Bibai's Nakamura district who had tenant farmers raise chickens, then served them to guests.
- Bibai YakitoriOne skewer carries the whole bird — offal, skin and all.
- Biratori WagyuJapanese Black raised in Biratori, Hidaka, founded on breeding cattle brought from Shimane in 1962 — finished slowly through harsh winters, said to give the meat a notably deep flavor.