Taiyo no Tomato

Not too long ago, my friend and I attempted to make a trip to Taiyo no Tomato, a ramen shop that specializes in a rather unusual tomato broth ramen.  We failed and got to Tsukemen Misawa, which is hardly a failure at all.  Nonetheless, we were determined to get our tomato ramen, and so a return trip was in order.

We got there and saw that they were having an Evangelion-related campaign.  If you're unfamiliar, Evangelion is a Japanese animated TV show that came out over 15 years ago, and the country has been obsessed with (at least in small corners like pachinko parlors) ever since.  One of the main pieces of Evangelion merchandise you can pick up are figures of the two main girls, quiet, light-blue-haired Rei, and spunky red-haired Asuka.  At Taiyo no Tomato, the girls were celebrated with two bowls of ramen - a light soymilk ramen for Rei, and a slightly German-themed tomato ramen for Asuka (who is German, as you can undoubtedly tell by her name).  Along with an order of tomato gyoza, my friend ordered the Rei and I got the Asuka.

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太陽のトマト麺
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Fukushima-ku, Fukushima, ５丁目１３−１８
Taiyo no Tomato is in a side street just southwest of Fukushima Station.

The Bowl
Taiyo no Tomato dishes out ramen that's like none other.  In fact, it should sooner be compared to an Italian restaurant than a ramen shop.  The soup was a hot and oily tomato broth; a thinned down version of what you might find on a lot of pasta.  Similarly, the noodles were thin, and very similar to spaghetti.  The toppings found in the bowl included celery, onions, yellow pepper, eggplant, and in German tradition, sausage and potatoes.

Would I Go Again?
Taiyo no Tomato is not the only tomato ramen place, but it is a good one.  I would have liked the Asuka bowl better with cheese in it, but that just means I'll have to order cheese next time.

Should You Go?
You really can't go wrong.  This is good on a day when you feel like pasta, but want ramen anyway.

Dogamori Maccho

I had skipped lunch, so I was pretty hungry.  When I was thinking about where to go, it crossed my mind that I had not yet ever been to a Jiro-kei shop in Osaka.  In Tokyo, there is a famous chain of shops called Ramen Jiro.  They make a shoyu-based soup that is heavy on pork, garlic, and fat.  And when I say "heavy", I mean to the extent that it's in a giant pile on top of your bowl.  Finishing the contents of a Jiro bowl is very difficult, and drinking all the soup is stupid, if not impossible.

Ramen Jiro makes a unique and popular enough ramen that it has become a style in its own right, Jiro-kei.  You can usually choose how much garlic, fat, and vegetables (read: bean sprouts) you get, though even saying "normal" will get you a medium sized heap.  I'd been to a small handful of Jiro-kei restaurants in Tokyo, but never to one in Osaka.  I looked up a nearby Jiro-kei shop, Maccho, and as I always do with Jiro-kei, I set off with good intentions, knowing full well that in the end I would regret it.

Maccho had tsukemen and even abura soba, but I went for the ramen.  They say that the normal size has as many noodles as a large at other places, so I didn't try to be a hero and just stuck with that.

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自家製太麺 ドカ盛 マッチョ
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Chūō-ku, Nipponbashi, ２丁目７−２２
Maccho is south of Nipponbashi Station, in one of the side streets west of Sakai-suji.

The Bowl
As you can see, they don't shy away from the toppings here, and yes, that small mound of yellow stuff on the top is raw garlic.  It would be two or three times as big if I had asked for extra.  The broth was extremely fatty and garlicky.  It was delicious for the first few sips, but there's a reason you're not expected to finish it.  The noodles were of medium thickness, and very greasy.  There were two or three big pieces of chashu which were brown, fatty, and more flavorful than I expected.

Would I Go Again?
It's been a while since I've been to a Jiro-kei and it will be a while until I go to one again.  That said, when I do, I'll probably see if I can find a different one.

Should You Go?
Everyone should try Jiro-kei once.  My favorite so far is probably one in Tokyo but Maccho was not bad, and the chashu was quite good.  If you live in Osaka, you wouldn't be wrong to make this your Jiro-kei trial.

Menikkon

Tonight's walk brought me through the heart of America Village, the area of Osaka that is meant to be somewhat modeling America.  It doesn't look anything like the US, not even in one of those ridiculous-mocking ways.  But it's a cool place to walk around, has a number of clothing shops, and even has some good ramen.

I found Menikkon in Ramen Walker.  It was advertised for having a rich katsuo (bonito) ramen and a good egg, so I ordered both.

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麺一献
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Chūō-ku, Nishishinsaibashi, １丁目７−２
Menikkon is in America Village, just a block north of the triangle park.

The Bowl
The soup base was a classic shoyu, but the soy sauce taste was overpowered by the fishiness of the katsuo.  Bowls this fishy I'm used to having as rich tsukemen, but this was comparatively quite light.  The noodles were thin, there were thins trips of menma and a fairly ordinary slice of chashu.  The thin onions stood out as being especially delicious, but my favorite topping was the egg.  After bursting it open with my chopsticks, the yolk poured out like the filling of a cream egg, and it tasted even better mixed with the soup.

Would I Go Again?
This was a very good shoyu bowl.  The closest I've had to it is the slightly fishy Rakunijin, but still Menikkon was a bit richer and more fishy.  I'd visit again.

Should You Go?
It's a good shoyu bowl in a great location.  You should go.

Fujiyama 55

I saw a branch of this shop when I was in Nagoya a couple months ago, and though I knew nothing about it, it caught my eye.  When I got the new Ramen Walker, I looked through it and noticed that a branch had recently opened up in Osaka.  It was in Higashi Umeda, which is pretty convenient, so I decided to stop by.

Fujiyama 55 (pronounced "Fujiyama Gogo") had a large selection of tsukemen and ramen to choose from.  After staring at the ticket vending machine for a while and debating over whether or not to get the curry tsukemen, I went with one of the employee's recommendations: the thick tsukemen.

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つけ麺・ラーメン フジヤマ55
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Kita-ku, Dōyamachō, １０−４
Fujiyama 55 is in a shopping arcade just east of the fountain plaza inside the Whity underground mall.

The Bowl
Fujiyama 55's tsukemen began like many others I'd had recently; a rich gyokai tonkotsu.  It was ordinary-but-good as a lot of them are.  It had a medium-thick soup with fat, firm noodles, and decent menma and chashu.  But from the first couple mouthfuls on is where it changed.  There was a large selection of free toppings available, allowing you to customize your ramen any way you want.  Pickles, sesame seeds, ginger, bean sprouts - all the classics.  I threw some extra onions, bean sprouts, and pickles into my bowl.  I really liked the tiny bit of extra spice the bean sprouts added, so I chucked a whole bunch more in.
On top of all that, when you finish the noodles, instead of giving you wari-soup like most places, Fujiyama 55 offers cheese, rice, and an induction heater for you to make your very own ramen cheese risotto.  I've had risotto before, but never with gyokai tonkotsu soup as a base.  It was cheesy, hot, and delicious.

Would I Go Again?
A large menu, tons of toppings and crazy, cheesy ramen risotto?  More importantly, curry tsukemen.  I'll be back.

Should You Go?
It's good, weird, and centrally located.  Check it out.

Tsukemen Dokoro Tsuboya

The other day one of my coworkers told me about a place in Kita with curry tsukemen.  My love of curry is well-documented, and so as soon as I got some free time, I decided to check it out.

Tsuboya is a chain of ramen shops in Osaka, and I'd been to the one in Nipponbashi before.  I had the spicy tsukemen, and it wasn't bad, but it was a little thin in both texture and flavor.

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つけ麺処 つぼや
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Kita-ku, Honjōhigashi, ２丁目１−２３
Tsuboya is north of Tenjinbashi Rokuchome Station on the west side of the street.

The Bowl
The spicy tsukemen I had the last time I went to Tsuboya was thin, and it turned out the curry tsukemen would be no different.  Compared with other curry noodles I've had before, Tsuboya's bowl offered a much more subtle curry taste, with a little bit of fishiness.  There was a sign advertising the fat homemade noodles, which were good, but might have been better suited to a thicker broth.  The egg was quite good and the bowl was filled with sprouts and something that I couldn't quite put my finger on but tasted a bit like fried onions or garlic.  Opposite from usual, the wari-soup added a bit of flavor to the broth and made it a bit more balanced.

Would I Go Again?
The toppings and noodles were good, but the broth was pretty weak.  I don't think I'll be back, and if I go to another branch, I definitely would not get the curry tsukemen again.

Should You Go?
The spicy tsukemen wasn't too bad, so you wouldn't be wrong to come and order that.  But there are better shops.

Tenbijio Ramen Iizumi

The other day my landlord yelled at me for writing a ramen blog in Osaka and not including any shio shops.  It's a good point, though most of the places I've found in Osaka don't specialize in shio.  One way or another, Ramen Walker helped me find one near Shinsaibashi and I stopped there on the way home.

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天日塩らーめん いゝずみ
Ōsaka-fu Ōsaka-shi Chūō-ku Minamisenba ２丁目７−３１
Iizumi is on one of the streets northeast of the big Shinsaibashi Tokyu Hands.

The Bowl
Light and refreshing.  Iizumi's shio ramen didn't make me super full like some of the thicker bowls I've had.  It had a clear soup that tasted very sesame and a bit oniony.  The noodles were thin and slippery, which made them very easy to slurp down.  The one slice of chashu was very tender; it had a stubtle taste that while very delicious, was not as in-your-face as the thick kakuni a lot of shops offer.  The egg, on the other hand, was very flavorful.

Would I Go Again?
I'm more of a kotteri guy and this is an assari place, but I would come back again if I'm not hungry enough to take down a full bowl of tsukemen or tonkotsu ramen.

Should You Go?
It's in a good location and it's a good shio bowl, so yeah.

Tsukemen Misawa

There's a lot of good ramen shops in Fukushima, and the area's been on my radar recently since the new issue of Ramen Walker has a whole page dedicated to it.  It's a bit out of the way, but my friend and I met in Umeda and were down for a walk.

We decided to try Taiyo no Tomato, but when we got there, it looked like there would be a wait, and we had somewhere to be so we gave up.  Next on our list was Ramen Jinsei JET, one I had been meaning to go to for a while since it's the 14th highest ranked shop in Osaka by ramendb, as of writing.  There was a line of maybe ten or twelve people, so it was on to the next shop.

One of the first places I tried in Osaka was the second branch of Misawa in Shinsaibashi.  I remember it being very good, and my friend hadn't tried it, so we headed for the main branch in Fukushima.  They serve gyokai tonkotsu tsukemen, with the option of getting umeboshi, or dried Japanese plum, on top of the noodles.  Of course I went for the one with the umeboshi.

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つけ麺 みさわ
Ōsaka-fu Ōsaka-shi Fukushima-ku Fukushima５丁目６−１１
Misawa is just south of Fukushima Station on the east side of Naniwa-suji.

As with some other tsukemen shops, Misawa has a recommended way to eat their tsukemen, as pictured above:
- First mix the onions into the broth to your liking
- After you've eaten one third of the noodles, squeeze the sudachi into the soup
- After you've eaten the next third of the noodles, put kuro-shichimi, the black spice pictured above, on your noodles to your liking
- When you're done with the noodles, pour in the wari-soup and ask for a yaki-ishi, a hot stone that reheats the remaining broth

The Bowl
The broth was a classic but delicious gyokai tonkotsu.  It was a bit sweeter than a number of other places I've been to, and dipping the noodles in the umeboshi before the broth made it even sweeter.  The flavor of the soup changed quite a bit as each of the ingredients was added; it went from oniony to citrusy, and finally to just a little bit spicy.  As you might have guessed, the final form was my favorite. Also inside the bowl was a fishcake, large, flavorful menma, some very good chashu, and interestingly enough, a shiso leaf.

Would I Go Again?
This was my third time to a Misawa branch and I'll likely be back.  It seems that there's a third branch now, so maybe I'll check that one out.

Should You Go?
With its unique tsukemen and it's great locations in Fukushima and Shinsaibashi, there's no reason not to.