Kappa Ramen

I do my best to do a little bit of research before deciding on a place to go to.  Unfortunately, sometimes I'm not prepared.  I was out drinking with friends, having made the smart move of not eating dinner.  Late at night we wandered Minami, looking for something to eat.  After a brief search of the shops that were still open, we chose Kappa Ramen.

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河童ラーメン
Ōsaka-fu Ōsaka-shi Chūō-ku Sennichimae １丁目９−１２
Kappa Ramen is on the north side of Sennichimae Dori, right by the Shinsaibashi arcade.

The Bowl
The broth was an oily, fatty tonkotsu.  I don't mind a fatty bowl of tonkotsu, but this was a lot of fat for a pretty mediocre bowl.  If you look at the picture closely, you can see the small chunks of fat floating in the soup.  This was the kind of bowl I would expect to get if I walked into a completely random ramen shop; not very good, but edible, and decent while drunk.

Would I Go Again?
They can't all be winners.  Even if I was hankering for ramen again late at night in Minami, I'd pick one of the many other options.

Should You Go?
No reason to hit this one up.

Shodai Hidechan

A vacation's not over until it's over.  With a few hours remaining before my friend had to catch his shinkansen home, we decided to make one last attempt at a bowl of ramen.  We headed back to Canal City's Raumen Stadium, where we previously ate Toyama Black but this time went for a more classic Fukuoka-style tonkotsu.  As with the previous time, I was too full for a full bowl, but the mini ramen was the right size.


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初代秀ちゃん
Shodai Hidechan is inside Canal City's Ramen Stadium.

The Bowl
Yet another rich tonkotsu broth, but much thicker than Isshin Furan and the other Hakata bowls I had.  It was pretty heavy and reminiscent of Muttepo, the king of thick pork ramen.  There was a lot of oil, green onions and bean sprouts, which really came through in the flavor of the soup.  The chashu were thin, fatty strips that melted right in to the thick broth.

Would I Go Again?
It doesn't hold a candle to Muttepo back in Kansai, but it was still very good.  If I lived in Fukuoka I'd probably check it out again, but with Muttepo so close by I don't see a reason to.

Should You Go?
If you're in Fukuoka for a while, it's worth a stop, but if you're going to be in Kansai or Tokyo, there are better options.

Isshin Furan

It was my final day in Fukuoka, so I started to feel a bit sad about having to go back to work the next day.  That was temporarily relieved when my friend from Fukuoka, having discovered that I love ramen the day before, decided to bring us to her favorite ramen restaurant.

There were four different colors you could choose from: the standard black, a more mild white, a miso red, and a shio yellow.  Although I was tempted by the red, for my first time here I had to go with the black.  They also let you choose the hardness of the noodles and how rich (read: oily) the broth is; normal, rich, or super-rich.  I went with hard noodles and rich broth.


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一心不乱
Fukuoka-ken Fukuoka-shi Chūō-ku Daimyō ２丁目６−５

The Bowl
The broth was thin and oily, but full of a rich porky flavor.  It was the classic Hakata style I had been looking for; not as stinky as Taiho, but thicker than Hana.  It reminded me a lot of Ippudo, but just a bit more balanced.  I ordered an extra set of noodles midway through the meal, and while normally that would really slow me down, I found myself wanting more even after downing all the soup.  The noodles that came with the bowl were thin and straight, but the extra ones were curly.  They didn't taste all that different, but it was nice to have both.  The chashu was juicy and tender, and the kikurage were chewy and crunchy.

Would I Go Again?
This was quite possibly the best tonkotsu bowl I've ever had.  Next time I'm in Fukuoka I'll be sure to stop by.

Should You Go?
If you like Ippudo and that style of ramen, you should go here.  If you don't...you should still go.

Hana

My second day in Fukuoka was pretty laid back.  I checked out the Yahoo! Dome (where the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks play), walked more around Tenjin, and hung out in the nearby Ohari park.  Some friends and I went to this gyoza shop where beers and gyoza were 100Y each, so although I wanted to eat ramen for dinner, this was too good of a deal to pass up.  It started getting late, but I was not to be stopped, so I had my friend bring us to a yatai, food stalls that Fukuoka is famous for.  As was the theme for this trip, though I wasn't particularly hungry, I ate.

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華
Fukuoka-ken Fukuoka-shi Chūō-ku Tenjin ２丁目１４−１３

The Bowl
Compared with the ramen I ate the previous day (Taiho and Toyama Black), this was much thinner.  Its pork taste was not as rich with the pork bone flavor as Taiho, but it was very refreshing at that point in the night.  The noodles were thin and chewy; I would have preferred them a bit harder as you can usually get in Hakata, but there were crunchy slices of kikurage to make up for it.

Would I Go Again?
The ramen was very refreshing, and I love yatais, but next time I'm in Fukuoka I'll try another stand.

Should You Go?
You definitely wouldn't go wrong by checking Hana out, but judging by the large number of yatais, there's bound to be some similar-but-better ramen out there.

Toyama Black

Just a few hours after my trip to Kurume, I found myself in Fukuoka, wandering around and exploring the city.  I went into a mall not too far from the main station, Hakata station, Canal City.  Malls aren't the most exciting place to go while on vacation in another city, but I had read about a place called Raumen Stadium, and even though I was still full from Taiho, I wanted to take a look.

Now I know that I came all the way to Fukuoka, and if you've read the title of this post you'll recognize that what I ate for this meal was not Hakata tonkotsu ramen, but rather Toyama shoyu ramen.  I didn't think I was going to eat ramen twice in one day, but here I was with my friend at Ramen Stadium.  I couldn't stomach a full bowl of tonkotsu, but I was able to be convinced to go for a mini bowl of Toyama shoyu.


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富山ブラック
Fukuoka-ken Fukuoka-shi Hakata-ku Sumiyoshi １丁目２−２２
Toyama Black is located inside Canal City's Ramen Stadium.

The Bowl
I got a mini ramen, which is the classic Toyama black style.  The broth was, unsurprisingly, black.  It tasted strongly of soy sauce, and much richer than the kind you put on sushi.  It had a bit of a roasted edge to it; I had a hard time putting my finger on it, but it worked well with the soy sauce flavor. The noodles were medium sized and fairly generic; they weren't all that good, but they went decently with the broth.  The menma was very crunchy, and the chashu, although salty and not that tender, also did a good job of absorbing the soup.

Would I Go Again?
Toyama black was not my favorite ramen of the trip, but I've never had shoyu ramen quite this rich before.  The roasted flavor really stuck with me, and I would definitely go back for more.

Should You Go?
This is a ramen that's worth trying.  There are plenty of better bowls, and I wouldn't stop there if you're just briefly in Fukuoka, but there's quite a few of them in the country.  If you're looking for something a bit different, and especially if you like soy sauce, check it out.

Taiho

There's no month like a month with two three day weekends.  And since I went to Tokyo the previous weekend, this weekend seemed like a good opportunity for a trip down south to Kyushu.  I'd only been to Kyushu once before - a brief stay overnight on my trip a couple years ago on my way from Japan to Korea.  Everyone knows that Fukuoka is known for its rich tonkotsu ramen, but what I only learned recently is that Kurume, a small city within Fukuoka prefecture, is also famous for a similar style.

Taiho was one I had read about online and in a magazine, so I figured that while I was going down to Fukuoka, I may as well make a stop in Kurume to check it out.  From half a block away the whole place stunk of pork bone.  It's a smell I couldn't stand but a year and half ago, but now I associate it with delicious if oily tonkotsu ramen.  I walked in, sat down, and ordered the standard ramen.


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大砲

Fukuoka-ken Kurume-shi Tōrihokamachi １１−８

The Bowl
I've had some thick tonkotsu in my time, like Muteppo or Hidechan, but this was different.  The broth was quite thin, though it was not lacking in oil.  I was expecting it to taste somewhat similar to famous chains Ippudo or Ichiran, and while there were similarities, Taiho was much richer, and tasted just like it smelled.  At tonkotsu shops like this you can often pick how hard the noodles are; I normally go for hard, but I got regular here, which were thin and chewy.  There was just a slice of egg in the ramen, and a few thin slices of chashu.  The chashu may not have been the thickest or juiciest I've had, but having sat in the broth for a while it tasted very strongly of tonkotsu.

Would I Go Again?
The strong scent of tonkotsu can still sometimes be a turnoff to me, and Taiho was stinking in it, but the ramen was delicious.  It's not my favorite tonkotsu, and not my favorite ramen of my Kyushu trip, but I respect the richness of it.  If I make it down to Kurume again, I'll definitely stop by.

Should You Go?
Not everyone will love the strong tonkotsu flavor, but everyone should try it at least once, and there's not really a better place than Taiho to do it.  If you ever find yourself in Kurume, that is.

Etsuzan

I was in New York at the beginning of last September, and by the time I got back to Japan, Tokyo Game Show was over.  Not that I was all that excited about waiting in lines for a few hours, I figured that while I was living in Japan I really should go at least once.  Also, an excuse to go to Tokyo, visit friends, and eat some more of the good stuff.

My friend and I slept in late and then decided to wander not too far from his place to get some ramen.  There's a cool ramen street right next to Koenji station, so we initially headed there.  On the way, though, we spotted Etsuzan, an interesting looking shop which I noticed was affiliated with one of the first great ramen shops I'd ever been to: Mutekiya in Ikebukuro.  Mutekiya is still one of my favorite places, so I couldn't pass up a try at Etsuzan.

I was going to go with the standard tsukemen, but I could not resist my temptation and picked the spicy one.


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麺創房 越山
Tōkyō-to Suginami-ku Kōenjiminami ４丁目２５−４
There's a big shopping arcade that starts at Koenji station and goes south.  Etsuzan is just a little bit south of the station, on the east side.

The Bowl
The broth was nice, thick and creamy, with a good amount of thick noodles.  There was a bit of a spicy kick; not super spicy by any means, but a comfortable tingly amount.  The menma was very flavorful, and picked up a lot of the heat and spice from the broth.  The chashu was very juicy, it had a bit of a smoky flavor to it and tasted even better when covered in hot soup.

Would I Go Again?
Spicy, fatty, delicious tsukemen.  The only reason I wouldn't go is that I don't get to Tokyo very often these days, so I'd rather try some place new.

Should You Go?
If you can, absolutely.