Japanese Ramen (Yo Yo)

Whoever a Chinese hear the pronunciation ramen will probably think about Chinese Lanzhou noodle. However, if the word appears in Japan, it has a different meaning. People who study Japanese know there are hiragana and katagana in Japanese language system. Katagana is used for foreigner words, especially western coming words. For most Chinese,  a lot the Japanese pronunciations sound similar with Chinese, and those similar words are either  modified by hiragana or kanji. The kanji of ramen (a kind of Chinese noodle) appeared in my mind when I first time heart the word ラーメン(ramen) in Japanese. You can hardly see any kanji written of ramen in any ramen restaurant of Japan even there are uncountable ramen restaurants. They are all written by katagana (used for western coming words mostly). I did not understand it until I got a chance to visit ramen museum in Yokohama. The reason ramen doesn't write in kanji is that ramen in Japan and ramen (kanji) in China is essential different. If Japanese restaurants use kanji of ramen, a lot of Chinese will miss the chance to taste this Japanese delicious noodle.

Japanese ramen has its own history, categories and recipes even ramen was originally came from China. Ramen has become one of the most typical food in Japan after more than hundred years.  Different from Chinese ramen which is hand-pulled, Japanese ramen is by cutting. You may think about Chinese sliced-noodle, but ramen is totally different with sliced noodle by looking and tasting. Not like Chinese ramen use light beef soup, Japanese noodle are mostly served with thick pork soup with soy sauce and miso (Japanese seasoning). Ramen is really an important food in Japan; along with beef sauced-rice is the top two lunch choice for office workers in Japan. In addition, ramen is also variety in Japan in different areas. East Japan, West Japan, Hokkaido and Kyushu all have their famous ramen. Some place intent to use more vegetables; some place more likely use seafood. There are also some shared-ingredients in all Japanese ramen, such as bamboo shoot and seaweed. Ramen can be also considered as fast-food in Japan, because Comparing to other traditional Japanese food, ramen is mostly cheap and fast. It is easy to find a ramen restaurant in most streets and all department stores. And it does not matter if the shop looks glorious or it, the ramen are all tasted. Even school cafeteria’s simple miso ramen is so delicious. Most ramen restaurants also serve some other ingredient for customers’’ choice, such as mashed garlic, red ginger and chilli oil.

The price of ramen is also variety. But in general, it’s about 500 to 1000 Japanese Yen. It is one of the most common meal choices in Japan. However, due to the complicated making process, usually Japanese families do not make ramen at home. This allows ramen business to have a really big market. There are two tips for eating ramen in Japan. First of all, the tradition way to eat ramen is to suck ramen without cutting by teeth along with noise. Even younger generations are not always doing it; do not ever be surprised by this special way when you have ramen in Japan. Second, do drink the soup of ramen even it looks really oily sometimes, it is one of the best part of ramen.

You have to try ramen in Japan. With good seafood you can make delicious sushi anywhere. But ramen in Japan is not the food itself, it is also about culture.