This was a fun experience, one of the few times that I was full in Tokyo. Enjoy.
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Ramen Jiro is around the corner of where I live. Day in, day out, I see hordes of people (youngsters and salary-men alike) lining up outside, but I never had the urge to try it, as my standards for ramen had been significantly elevated (for better or for worse) since my visit to Menya Kissou.
I always knew about "Ramen Jiro" from various ramen blogs (super popular with a "cult following"), but I never quite put two and two together, in a very literal sense: it had never occurred to me that 二郎 [二 means two] was "Jiro" as I would normally just read it in Chinese in my head.
Fast forward to December 30th, as Japan began to embrace the New Year, Tokyo became somewhat of a ghost town (relatively, of course), and most shops closed for the holidays. As we panicked to find our next meal, Ramen Jiro's "営業中" ["Open for Business"] sign greeted us like a beacon on stormy seas.
The store was packed. As we waited for a small table to open, we examined the ticket machine. It was a pretty standard selection featuring regular vs. oomori [large-size] noodles, extra vs. double pork, and various toppings such as egg and leek. I don't recall ever getting full on regular servings in Japan, and I was hungry; so naturally, I picked oomori with double pork.
We waited and waited and waited, and finally, our bowls came, and I was stunned. My bowl was probably 1.5 times the size of my face, and it was topped high with thick slices of pork, which you can kind of see from the picture below). It was probably close to a gallon of food, no exaggerations.
The soup was something that was really interesting and odd. It was definitely a tonkotsu broth, but it was super super super rich/fatty and had mostly the flavours of fat. The soup started out to be seemingly under-seasoned, so I added some soy sauce for flavours, but that got really salty towards the end, and I would not do that again. Overall, it was a good soup, but if you have heart conditions, I would probably skip this shop altogether. The noodles weren't typical ramen noodles as they were much thicker. Probably 4-9 times the diameter. The noodles had a lot of texture, and tasted quite good. The pork came from various parts, but primarily from the tenderloin, and they were very dry. The non-tenderloin parts were delicious, but super fatty, again, not for the weak-hearted. There was also a ton of bean sprouts and cabbage, which I soaked in the soup immediately to absorb some of the excess fat.
At about half way, I could feel my determination waning; at about 2/3, I was dying from the sheer quantity as well as the liquid fat. Each and every bite became a challenge to both the body and the soul. The Simpsons flashed into my mind: "What's happening to me? There's still food, but I don't want to eat it. I've become everything I've ever hated". I ate on. In the end, we finished everything except three pieces of tenderloin.
I ran home, and passed out on the floor for a good three hours.
Will probably go back, but definitely standard and single pork.
=============== Some perspective: I think this is oomori single pork
Ohhh, now I feel like ramen :o I wish there was another picture with something in it to gauge it against. The two pictures you have up there make it look normal? (I'm using the egg to judge) Maybe it's the angle?
Now I'm dying for some ramen. Thanks for letting me know about this place, I'm going to write it down and try to look for it the next time I go to Japan.
A very unfortunate scenario: You're hungry > the irresistible lure made you order/cook twice of what you'd normally eat > Arrrghhh, I can't finish this. Happens very often to me, I hate myself for it everytime, and then I go ahead to do it again.
Your pictures are top-notch quality as the food are, as always.
On February 02 2012 07:01 Newbistic wrote: The egg yolk loos overdone >:D
Otherwise it looks delicious. What would you say is the difference between Chinese and Japanese style ramen?
There are also a lot of styles of ramen in Japan, so it's really hard to make a blanket statement. The type I had, tonkotsu ramen, has a really rich broth made from pork bones.
China doesn't really have "ramen", there are a lot of types of noodles that could be considered "ramen". I think the biggest difference is probably in Japan, the noodles are never boiled with the soup.
Ramen is of Chinese origin,[1][2] however it is unclear when ramen was introduced to Japan. Even the etymology of the word ramen is a topic of debate. One theory is that ramen is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese lamian (拉麺),[3] meaning "hand-pulled noodles." A second theory proposes 老麺 (laomian, "old noodles") as the original form, while another states that ramen was initially 鹵麺 (lǔmiàn), noodles cooked in a thick, starchy sauce. A fourth theory is that the word derives from 撈麵 (lāomiàn, "lo mein"), which in Cantonese 撈 means to "stir", and the name refers to the method of preparation by stirring the noodles with a sauce.
Looks amazing, I'm not a fan of the noodle size. Any spices you could determine?
I usually like uncooked raw eggs over my ramen and let the steam cook marginal parts of it. Gives the thin noodles more oomph and filler, but my ramen doesn't look as rich and succulent as that!
On February 02 2012 07:01 Newbistic wrote: The egg yolk loos overdone >:D
Otherwise it looks delicious. What would you say is the difference between Chinese and Japanese style ramen?
There are also a lot of styles of ramen in Japan, so it's really hard to make a blanket statement. The type I had, tonkotsu ramen, has a really rich broth made from pork bones.
China doesn't really have "ramen", there are a lot of types of noodles that could be considered "ramen". I think the biggest difference is probably in Japan, the noodles are never boiled with the soup.
Ramen is of Chinese origin,[1][2] however it is unclear when ramen was introduced to Japan. Even the etymology of the word ramen is a topic of debate. One theory is that ramen is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese lamian (拉麺),[3] meaning "hand-pulled noodles." A second theory proposes 老麺 (laomian, "old noodles") as the original form, while another states that ramen was initially 鹵麺 (lǔmiàn), noodles cooked in a thick, starchy sauce. A fourth theory is that the word derives from 撈麵 (lāomiàn, "lo mein"), which in Cantonese 撈 means to "stir", and the name refers to the method of preparation by stirring the noodles with a sauce.
Hey we have 味千拉面 here ! Just kidding. But the name of the chain shows they translate "ramen" by 拉面. I was actually convinced that it was the only official translation until you posted that Wikipedia excerpt.
living in the OC area at college and Pasadena area at home (california), shinsengumi is the closest to the ideal ramen for me. that beansprout ramen video looked so gooooodddddd
EPT![[image loading]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20968/photos/2011.12.30.ramen.jiro/DSC04289 (Small).jpg)
![[image loading]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20968/photos/2011.12.30.ramen.jiro/DSC04288 (Small).jpg)
