From Setsuko Yoshizuka,
Your Guide to Japanese Food.
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Instant ramen noodles are popular in the world, but ramen eaten in Japan are different from instant noodles. Chukamen (raw Chinese noodles) are used to make ramen. Even though Chinese noodles are used in ramen dishes, ramen is a typical Japanese food. There are so many ramen shops in Japan, and ramen is a kind of Japanese fast food.

Making a delicious ramen isn't easy if you are making the soup from scratch. The taste of ramen mainly depends on the soup, and it requires skills to make delicious soup. Ramen chefs usually train for a long time to learn to make ramen soup. Each ramen shop has its own way to make soup, and there are so many different ways. Chicken born, pork born, dried sardines (niboshi), and/or kombu are used to make soup stock for ramen. Vegetables, such as ginger, negi, garlic, or/and mushrooms are also added.

Categorized by the flavor, there are mainly four kinds of ramen: shio ramen (salt flavored soup), shoyu ramen (soy sauce flavored soup), tonkotsu ramen (pork bone soup), miso ramen (miso flavored soup). Tonkotsu ramen soup is creamy white, and miso ramen soup is brown.

Common ramen toppings are negi (leek), shinachiku (seasoned bamboo shoots), nori (dried seaweed), yakibuta (pork ham), boiled egg, and so on.

To make ramen at home, buying packages of ramen noodles is an easy way. They are usually sold with small packages of ramen soup. ANA super Japanese Supermarket sells Japanese ramen packages online. If you can't get packages of ramen noodles, here are easy ramen recipes.

Quick Shoyu Ramen Recipe

Salt Flavored Corn Ramen Recipe

Japanese Cuisine Photo Gallery / More Japanese Recipes