This is the mother load of ramen stories. There is a ramen shop in the Adachi ward (足立区) of Tokyo. It has the largest mind-boggling array of weird ramen I've seen yet. I got most of my information reading through this
delightful webpage, but there are many others about this immensely interesting ramen restaurant. I must go there someday!
Man, where do I start? Look at the pictures of the extensive menu below! Som
e of the things on here include red ramen, green ramen, yellow ramen, blue ramen and purple ramen! Apparently red ramen is tomato ramen! Yellow ramen is turmeric ramen. The green ramen is... well, at first I thought it said blue ramen because the Japanese use the same character (青) for green and blue, but usually it means blue because they have a separate one (緑) that just means green. But when I read that the 青ramen was made of 青汁, I figured they probably meant green ramen. 青汁 (aoshiru) is... um... I don't know. It's some sort of super healthy green juice. Think of it like the Japanese version of wheat grass shots I guess. It's made out of kale and/or barley leaves and/or bittermelon(!?!?!) among other things I may not care to know about. It sounds awful, but I've never had it, so I can't really say. The blue and purple ramens are apparently made with vegetables that turn the soup that color. Hey, it sounds weird, but I'd at least be down to try it.
On to things I would probably try first, though! :D Ice cream ramen!!!!!
Yes, I know, at first it doesn't really sound very good, but the more it sat there melting into my brain, the more and more awesome and awesome it started seeming. The soup is cold(!) The ramen is refri
gerated and the ice cream is put on top so it can be eaten cold. From the picture on the left it's hard to tell, but that's just an ice cream cone full of soft serve that's cut in half. I'm not really sure what that green shredded vegetable sprinkled on top is. I think when I saw the picture on the right and started imagining myself sitting there staring into the bowl is when I really decided I want to try this. Ice cream and ramen could totally go together! Apparently the ice cream ramen came about because he used to give ice cream to kids who had been playing baseball across the street and came in starving afterwards. I guess the thought struck him... Why not put ice cream in the ramen? The man's a genius. :P
I'll run through the other ramens mentioned on that site quickly since I don't have pictures. It seems there is a coffee ramen that might be popular. It was inspired by a woman who really loved coffee and wanted a coffee drink after her ramen. So again, the idea struck the guy... Why not put coffee in the ramen? Truly inspired. :) I love this symbiotic relationship he has with his customers. The coffee ramen has milk added or it's too bitter. Once he had coffee ramen he had to create cocoa ramen (of course). There is a grated Japanese yam and kelp (konbu) ramen that sounds interesting. There's even a natto ramen!!! (I might try that one last.) Probably the most interesting ramen on the menu is alkali ramen. It's basically ramen with batteries droped into the soup (there's a picture on the page above with the shopkeeper holding batteries). He'll use large batteries for adults and small ones for children. I wonder what he was doing when he was struck with the idea... Why not put the batteries in the ramen? The man's a god. It soud
s tingly and delicious.
Although that's all that's mentioned on the aforementioned report, there is even more to be had here. Looking at
this page, the shop apparently also offers... Fungus ramen?!?! Well, maybe not exactly. It seems to be ramen with probiotics added. Wait, dammit! That means I was beaten to yogurt ramen??? I guess. Not a big surprise really. Although, he doesn't use yogurt. He uses green tea, Kirin brand apparently, with probiotics added. I bet it tastes better than mine. He searched all over for the best tasting bacteria to make the perfect ramen. ;) Maybe he had the flu one day and the thought struck him... Oh, no, that's kind of gross. But anyway, I should train under this guy like in an old kung fu movie. He sounds amazingly cool!
This is why ramen in Japan just totally blows my mind again after I get used to ramen in LA. Unfortunately, I don't get to try this; I just get to drool over the pics. Look at this and think about all the ramen you eat in LA. It's like comparing your child's refrigerator art to a Mona Lisa. You love your kids doodles of dinosaurs, but c'mon, it's not exactly inspiring. I think this is a good analogy. In Tokyo, ramen is an art. Even the presentation is perfected. I got these pics from this site.
imachi (大井町) which is in the Shinagawa district (品川区) of Tokyo. This particular dish, which is a Tonkotsu-shoyu (pork bone and soy sauce) soup is only served on Saturday evenings, at the customer's request (i.e., it's not on the menu). The man posting about it has gone every weekend since they started serving it. :D
