It Was A Ramen and Curry-Kind of Day

I have decided that two of my favorite foods in Japan is the curry and the ramen. The Japanese curry is brown or a beef-type and the ramen is like nothing in the U.S. For that reason, Nick took us to the Ramen Museum in Yokohama which was spectacular. We were headed up that way to take the bullet train to Osaka so we stayed overnight another night there to experience more Yokohama.

The Ramen Museum is set-up to look like shops from around the world.

It reminded me of the old Seattle Food Circus where I worked as a teenager.

We learned that ramen is from China but it has spread into cultures all over the world. Each culture, such as Japan, has their own version of ramen. At this museum, they have different restaurants from various countries that rotate through the museum for sampling of their ramen. So, since Nick has been here before, the samples of ramen are different from the last time he was here. There were about 10 different types of ramen shops to sample so we chose three to try. The first one NARUMI-IPPUDO was from France

with a consommé based French bouillon with beef crossed with Japanese dashi stock

and special baguette breadcrumb ramen noodles.

The noodles are considered medium thickness with more of a lighter broth. This is how ramen differs, by the thickness of the noodles and how rich or light the broth is. The flavors were superb and the mushrooms were especially delicious. I liked the French decoration in the restaurant.

Our second sample was very different. It was from Germany at a restaurant called Muku Zweite made with pork, pork bone broth and soy sauce.

These noodles were thicker with a very rich broth.

This one was also delicious, the pork just melted in your mouth. The proper way to eat ramen is to eat what is in the broth and leave the broth. It's not like soup where you eat all of it. The broth is only there to flavor the ramen ingredients.

Our last sampling was of the traditional Japanese type of ramen from a restaurant in Kyushu called Toride.

The broth was simmered slowly for 20 hours using pork bone, condensing the umami taste element.

The noodles are super thin and straight.

They also provide fresh garlic to mince and stir into your ramen.

Toride is also known for their specially crafted bite-size gyoza that we also sampled, which are like won-tons.

There are a lot of different ramens but you probably won't find one you don't like which is why it's my favorite food in Japan. But, I also like the curry, another dish that is popular in many countries and Japan has also adapted their version which is very tasty, too.

It is always brown colored, cooked with beef. We stopped into one of Nick and Sachiyo's favorite neighborhood places called Riverstone, earlier in the day for lunch after our morning walk.

This place was so tiny, as are many of the Japanese places we go into but this one made us feel like we were in a dollhouse!

Even my little salad that came with my curry was dollhouse-size.

All our food is small portions when we eat in restaurants in Japan, so different than America's super size portions. Nick ordered curry spaghetti. I bet you didn't think there was such a thing? He loves it.

We are burning all our calories that we eat with all our walking in Japan and the weather has been beautiful. Small portions, lots of activity = healthy lifestyle. I like Japan.

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