Shall we ramen today? ;) let’s talk about ramen.

There are lots of ramen shops, restaurants, chain stores, franchise businesses going on around ramen nowadays. There even is collaborations between few famous ramen shops to cater the trends and satisfy the hungry ramen enthusiasts. Ramen business is a big war game. Tokyo is the main battle field, but many restaurateurs origin from outside Tokyo.

I hope to write more about this ramen war from time to time. Meanwhile, I will just pick up whichever that come across.

Fufu ramen, written as wind-wind, is a franchise ramen. Wind, is always in a moving condition, the concept is to keep moving forward, once it stops, it will become “air.” the motivation is to always taking new challenge, seek for new taste and recipe for betterment, and keep moving without stopping down.

When ramen serves hot, one cools it off by blowing the noodle. That’s the sound of “fufu” too. Another meaning is fufu literally means a married couple. It doesn’t state clearly, perhaps the owner had been eating ramen around with his wife (I’m just guessing!)

Among the many flavors assist, I personally feel that the strongest flavor of tonkotsu that originally came from Kyushu (southern Japan) has become the most characteristic broth in the ramen battle. Why Kyushu? There are few perspectives from the cultural background but we will talk about it next time.

In the mood of ramen.

Chinese dishes are very common in Japan that some of the dishes have become part of the Japanese daily diet since kids. I see kids have spring roll in their bento to school which I never had before. Most of the dishes that I only eat at restaurants, Japanese make the effort to make it so homely.

I eat lots of dan dan noodles, when I find it’s really spicy and recommended. Somehow I never try to cook it at home. I don’t know, it appears to me that it’s a dish that to be consumed at a restaurant with a proper chef. That’s the idea I had.

One day my wife said she will cook dan dan for dinner. Within minutes she checked the most popular cooking recipe website cookpad and found one tempting and easy-to-make recipe, she went to get all the ingredients and I had my first home cooked dan dan noodles at home for dinner.

Yet till now, it still never occurred to me to cook dan dan noodles at home. Is it because I have an expectation about “proper dish” in me, I wonder.

For those who are familiar with ramen, the above photo is quite recognizable. I am not pin-pointing at the restaurant, but just wanted to talk about services in general. Many of my Malaysian friends were very interested in it when i mentioned the observation.

So my friend came over from Japan, and we decided to go to one ramen shop for lunch that I frequent regularly for supper. Three of us was on the waiting list; my friend, my boy, and me. At first my friend ordered normal ramen same as Shion, and I ordered red (chili hot) ramen, with the noodle harder, means don’t boil too soft. So it was 2 normal and 1 red. But I know my friend would prefer hot and spicy too, so I explained to her what I ordered, she then decided to have he same as me. So the waiter corrected it, repeated, and we confirmed.

When our turn came, the waitress gave us a bowl and a fork. At this point, I knew she might be new or totally hopeless because she must have not even looked at the order when she brought it over. The first second I realized that, she seemed realized that at about the 3rd second after me because she came back, collected the bowl back, and apologized. This was one.

Secondly, the ramen arrived, but with 2 normal ramen. Straight away I said, no, only 1 normal, 2 aka (red). You see, some mistake might have been made while we ordered, but we reordered and the guy who took the order repeated. Now without passing the order verbally to the kitchen, the order arrived silently at the counter. This isn’t the way.

A bowl of ramen costs around 700 yen, which almost one hour part time pay. From the point of financial management, it doesn’t mean much. But giving a wrong dish to customer in Japan, you better make sure you have something to compensate what you are going to lose. This isn’t about fussy customer, but how much you can feel about what the customer “feels good.”

I think I will keep go back at night time when the owner there. It makes me feel “comfortable” and that’s the price I would like to pay.

Looked back my food stories and photos, I was surprised of the ramen photos that I have. Reminded me a conversation I had before with an ex-French chef who turned to be a ramen restaurant owner. 

“I used to work for a 5-star hotel as a French chef for more than 30 years. Nothing exciting. Later I quit and started my own ramen shop. Look at any station, you sure will find at least one ramen shop. Most Japanese want to have rice for dinner, ramen is filling, so it is always an option for dinner.”

“If you want to run your own restaurant, ramen is your choice. Don’t do Asian, you can’t survive. Trust me. I bought this building within 5 years. Got another building somewhere nearby too.”

Recently, I passed by his shop, didn’t see him inside, but another young guy was there. Looks like his son. The other day, another new takeaway-only bento store was launched next door. 250 yen, compared to the normal 500 yen bento, it’s almost half price. There he was, the ex-ramen restaurant owner. He was inside the shop trying to explain to a vendor on some renovation work. On the display, it says luxurious steak lunch/dinner coming soon, 500 yen only! Bento store was packed with people on its launching. Within short period, the shop seemed to get itself well-known. I saw two young high school boys started working there as part timer recently. 

On the other hand, the ramen shop, as always, frequented by salaried men after work at night, and mostly men, still making profit as usual, I guess. The wide 47-inch liquid crystal television doesn’t fit the ramen shop. The owner must have own the new bento store building. Perhaps he bought it with cash. 

There is a famous Thai restaurant named Tinun that serves a variety of Thai local foods in Tokyo. There is one at Takadanobaba that serves mainly Tom Yam ramen. It seems has developed to the Japanese style where you can choose your topping like spiciness and coriander, etc.

When I went, I didn't feel so much at a Thai restaurant, rather just another ramen shop that I used to frequent. Ordered my ramen -- which is Tom Yam ramen --, the hardness of noodle you want, and the topping, coriander.

With the way Japanese has developed its ramen, I can feel that if any Asian noodles were well accepted here, there will be a trend it will be advanced by the customers to gain its popularity and perhaps come up with another style of eating, like Tom Yam ramen. Tokyo has such power to me.

Wonder which would be the next runners up.

When was the first ramen you had before? Could you tell which was your favorite? There has been tremendous change in ramen industry and the taste people are looking for also gone through a big change here in Japan. So as the instant noodle history. When I make ramen at home, I still prefer to use the raw noodle.

I can have noodles the whole week: ramen, udon, soba, yellow noodle, bihun, penne, pho, and I miss mee hun ker…