煮干しそば とみ田 - Niboshi Soba Tomita, Higashi Washinomiya

徳つけ - Virtuous Tsukemen

   This place may or may not look familiar (probably the latter judging from the pageviews) - we've been here before, but that was when it was under a different name, Tenpu. It seems that in the meantime the owners have remained the same but also mixed up the menu. It is now serving a niboshi shoyu ramen. 

  Of course, being warm at the time of year I went and not having done any research on the matter. I chose the toke tsuke, which is what I had last time.

  It may have been a little different from last time. It was still fishy, but also seemed a little sweeter than what I remembered. Either way, they would be silly to mess with this one too much. They're certainly onto a winner here. Soup wari was up there too.

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らーめん 大雅 - Taiga, Saitama

味噌らーめん - Miso Ramen

    Having finally got my Japanese drivers license, one of my first stops in the car had to be a ramen shop. I don't expect anyone to come out this way, but it is certainly refreshing to be able to get out on the road and away from the trains every once in a while... The traffic, however, remains.

    Taiga was a tip from a local who, so far, has been a pretty useful contributor to my travels around these northern reaches of Saitama. 

    The master here at Taiga used to work at a popular Sapporo shop so, wait for it... it's another miso ramen review. I was sure to be on my best behavior too, as he also apparently has a bit of a reputation for being curt with his customers. Understandably so, since he has all these know-nothing ramen nerds coming in and taking photos of his work then posting them on the internet and writing shitty reviews...

    Here 'tis.

    It was definitely a Sapporo-style miso ramen, with a thick layer of oil on top trapping the heat inside. This place does get good reviews, but I wasn't overly impressed, which isn't to say I was unimpressed either. It was, however, a pretty good representation of a miso ramen but just seemed to lack it's own personality. (Remember what I said about shitty reviews earlier?)

   I was still pretty keen to get to the end though. 

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らーめん工房 みそ玄 - Misogen, Shiraoka

特みそらーめん - Toku Miso Ramen

   Every now and then on a trip out to Saitama I get a recommendation to check out and this time it was Misogen, just across from Shiraoka station. This is quite a nice change since often the shops out this way can often only be accessed by car - which we used anyway.

   The stores around here often have a little more of a family-friendly atmosphere the ramen-nerd stores of Tokyo and there was even a high chair pulled up to the counter for the little ones. Meanwhile, the master of the place was busy cooking, clearing tables and working the register all on his own.

   They have a few different types on offer here - tokumiso, Hokkaido style miso and an interesting sounding tan-tan miso, all of which have a few different options themselves. This standard one was quite interesting itself and had a rather buttery flavour to it. Unfortunately they had run out of chashu for the day so we weren't able to have the full experience but I was pretty content with it. 

Obviously...

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支那そば 天風 - Tenpu, Higashi Washinomiya

徳つけ - Toku Tsuke, ￥700

     It's unfortunate, but sometimes a trip out to a ramen shop can be met with disappointment. I don't mean whether you like it or not but whether you can actually eat or not. 

    Tenpuu, just a few minutes west of Higashiwashi Nomiya station, was the culprit this time, although closing for the purpose of trying to perfect their ramen was a perfectly acceptable reason.

    So it would have to wait for another time which isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world when you live in a city with 5,000 or so ramen shops. We eventually made it back almost 8 months later...

    Yet another of the ever popular tonkotsu-gyokai variety tsukemen. This one was probably more fishy than some of the others I've tried. But it was definitely worth the wait, although it's not as though I abstained from ramen for the duration so there wasn't in fact any waiting at all. 

    Now I know that a visit to these depths of Saitama is unlikely (2 stations before Ibaraki and 3 before Tochigi) but it's a great little place and you might also find one of the best onsen in Kanto out there...

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中村屋@West Park Cafe - Nakamuraya, Koshigaya Laketown

味玉塩ラーメン - Shio Ramen with Egg, ￥800

     What do you do when you have a national holiday on a Saturday? You go to the biggest shopping mall in the country, that's what! Actually, I am in the minority as I am one of the people who doesn't frown at the wastefulness of a holiday on the weekend since I'm usually at work. Anyway, amongst the hustle bustle of the bargain hunters and the salarymen dads spending the day with the family you can find a few ramen shops.

    Hmmmm. Not many people seemed to venture out to the outlet mall part of Laketown and we basically had the restaurant to ourselves. Much like the outlet stores themselves, Nakamura's prices were comparable with their counterparts in the mall proper. So you know you're not getting any factory seconds....

     The recommendation was a shio ramen, and since I was in the midst of a personal shio boom, I was happy to oblige. Again, I have a bit of a backlog of posts to write up so I can't remember this one too well, but I do remember liking it...

    Worth a visit if you're in the deepest depths of Saitama...

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Nakamuraya Homepage

もちもちの木 - Mochi Mochi no Ki, Shiraoka

醤油中華そば（中）- Shoyu Ramen (Medium) ￥770

     As you can see, Mochi Mochi no Ki isn't in Tokyo. The instructions from the car were to look out the right-hand side window until we spotted it, which turned out to be a rather difficult task as the store is pretty inconspicuous with just a small sign barely visible from the street. 

    Despite this, and the fact that we were what looks like a 20 minute walk from the train station, yes,  there was a line. About 8 people outside but the real surprise was the small waiting room just inside the door for about 10 people. Just like a theme park when you think you're almost at the front only to turn a corner and realise that there's another 40 or so people in front of you.

    After about 20 minutes or so we eventually managed to take a seat (not literally a seat) inside the dimly lit, cavernous restaurant. Right next to a folding screen that had been tacked on to the wall.

    After much deliberation I had decided to go with the medium sized bowl since I was feeling pretty hungry. I was surprised by what came though and can't imagine what the large bowl looks like. The solitary chashu looked so lonely floating around the middle of the bowl.

    I should have realised what I was getting myself into as the menu clearly stated the sizes are 140g, 280g and 420g, but it wasn't just the volume of the noodles that made it difficult. There is clearly a lot of water in this shoyu/gyokai soup that comes to you at a hotter than usual temperature. This is one of the points that distinguishes Mochi Mochi no Ki from other ramen shops. Another thing I noticed was that the menma seemed a little more wild than usual and isn't chopped into standard-sized pieces. 

    Unfortunately...

    However...

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Mochi Mochi no Ki Homepage

豚風 - Tonpooh, Chichibu

白味噌つけ麺 - White Miso Tsukemen ￥880

     It looks as though there could be an interesting rivalry between the interestingly-named Tonpooh and it's next door neighbour which also just happens to be a ramen shop. Tonpooh is on the right and was open during Golden Week which made the choice a little easier. Since we were in the countryside a little Japanese tradition remained and we were seated on a tatami floor.

    And joined by a friendly toothpick holder...

    With another customer throwing a tantrum since someone else on her table had mistakenly started eating her bowl before his had arrived, I decided to study how to eat the tsukemen in case there were any secret tips or tricks.

   Here you squeeze the lemon into your soup rather than your noodles. It always confuses me which they recommended for us (and how much of a difference it makes. Speaking of which they pointed out that the soup was very thick and advised to get the assari (less oily) but we went for the futsu (regular) anyway.

    It was as thick and gritty as it looks. But I really enjoyed it. I should mention that miso ramen was a conscious decision as the local delicacy in Chichibu seems to miso potato which is a very representative name. (How this hasn't caught on in other parts of Japan, I don't know.)

   The chashu resembled a flame-grilled hamburger and managed to hit the spot.

    When it was time to finish the soup there was no way we were going to be able to stomach the sauce-like broth so it was time to call for soup wari. When our bowls returned we got a little shio ume smeared onto the inside to mix in with the broth. A little surprise.

Sappari.

     And then onto the business of why we came to Chichibu in the first place - to see the shiba zakura.

   And have some of that miso potato.

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Tonpooh Homepage