Big in Japan: The search for the perfect bowl of ramen continues

by Matthew Firestone on

Today, Big in Japan brings you an update on one noodle lover’s countrywide search for Japan’s most perfect bowl of ramen.

I love ramen.

For some, it’s the rich color and briny pop of beluga caviar. For others, it’s the pink tint and soft flesh of fatty tuna belly.

For me, it’s got to be ramen, Nature’s most perfect food.

Since first coming to Japan several years ago, I have been engaged in a tireless quest to find the most perfect bowl of ramen. Like finely aged wine, matured cheese or sun-ripened fruit, good ramen must be appreciated, savored and at all times revered.

Last month, I wrote about the spicy ramen bowl at Two Guy’s Ramen, a neighborhood landmark here in the Nakameguro ward of Tokyo. Although I was quick to grant the title of ‘Most Perfect Bowl of Ramen,’ I may have found a worthy competitor.

For your visual consumption, I will now introduce you to the black sesame ramen bowl (kuroi-goma-ramen; ???????????????????) at Chiyomatsu (????), a small noodle shop just around the corner from Hachiko Plaza in the Shibuya district of Tokyo.

As a self-professed ramen aficionado, there are number of striking features about his particular bowl of ramen.

For starters, admire for a moment the rich ebony hue of the soup broth. Like the addition of squid ink to handmade Italian fettuccine, the black sesame paste is the soaring crescendo in this masterful culinary symphony.

When your spoon first breaks through the surface layer of pork fat, the black sesame paste begins to swirl through the broth like a seething black hole. This awakens the rich aroma of toasted sesame, which merges effortlessly with the heady aromas of miso and soup stock.

And the taste – oh lordy!

Like a heroin junky indulging in a back alley fix, the eyes dilate and the blood starts to flow the moment this sodium-fueled concoction races across your tongue. Health food it ain’t, but few calorie-packed meals comfort the mind and sooth the body quite like this feat of ramen engineering.

Of course, perfection is all in the details, which is why the black sesame ramen bowl at Chiyomatsu is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Like the wood trim on a fine automobile or the sparkling bracelet on a runway model, the latest subject of my affection is all about the accessories. From the addition of the finely shredded saffron and fresh sheets of pressed seaweed to the perfectly soft-boiled egg and cubed pork chuck, this particularly bowl of ramen is just as fashionable as it is delicious.

Chiyomatsu – I salute you. Although my quest for the most perfect bowl of ramen is far from over, the bar has been raised, and my hunger quenched (for the time being).

For more on Nature’s most perfect of foods, check out An Ode to Ramen, a four-part series on the history and culture of this heaven-sent dish.

Bon appetite!

One for the Road: A Tale of 12 Kitchens

by Kelly Amabile on

This cookbook gem came out last year but, I stumbled across some rave reviews recently, and thought it deserved a mention, especially as the holiday cooking season heats up! A Tale of 12 Kitchens: Family Cooking in Four Countries follows Jake Tilson on food adventures around the world, including stops in New York, Tuscany and Scotland.

Tilson used his artistic eye (he’s a photographer and painter) to create a one-of-a-kind “cookbook-cum-scrapbook” that doubles as a travel journal. Readers are invited into Tilson’s inner circle — his foodie family is a collection of colorful characters obsessed with cooking. In unique fashion, the book celebrates the possibilities of food, and the deeply personal aspects of communal meal preparation. The eighty recipes included in the book are gathered from all corners of the globe, but the real treasure of these kitchen tales is the original and refreshing way in which they are presented.

Tilson will appear in New York on December 5 as part of The James Beard Foundation’s Beard on Books series.

It’s Not Horrifying If You Can Eat It

by Abha Malpani on

Ever since I ate fried cockroaches in Thailand and rotten kangaroo tail in Australia, I love bringing up the ‘what’s the weirdest, most disgusting thing you’ve eaten’ topic; I normally beat everyone. It’s funny though how I can eat cockroaches, but I think caviar is disgusting.

The grossest thing I’ve eaten is eel. UGH. It was in a Korean restaurant in Wollongong (Australia) where we went with Korean classmates and (over) confidently asked them to order. UGGGHHH.

The most stomach-churning Spanish food which I haven’t had the courage to try yet is bull testicles.

Anyway, after looking at this recently published list of World’s Most Terrifying Food, bull testicles seem as good as eating grapes. Among the more, um, unusual foods are:

  • Escamoles (Mexico): Eggs of a giant ant that have the texture of cottage cheese.
  • Cazu Marzu (Sardinia, Italy): Sheep cheese infested with ‘cheese fly,’ in an advance stage of decomposition. It’s even illegal in Sardinia!
  • Lutefish (Norway): It’s a fish marinated in lye — a strong industrial chemical used to clean drains and kill plants; and apparently when the fish is drenched long enough in this lye thing, it can dissolve silver cutlery.
  • Baby mice wine (Korea): Beats the eel on a scale of grossness 100:1. This is a health tonic where baby mice are stuffed into a bottle of wine while alive! (I think I am going to throw up).
  • Pacha (Iraq): Boiled goat head. Well, in the Arab world fried goat brains and tongue is not uncommon, so this one didn’t gross me out.
  • Balut (Philippines): Duck eggs incubated until the fetus is almost a duck, but not quite; it’s then boiled alive and served out of buckets of warm sand.

Now let’s try and keep in focus that this is daily food of people around the world, and is not gross to them, let alone terrifying. I wonder if it’s unthinkable for people in Korea and China that in India some eat only vegetables grown above the ground — i.e. their food cannot have potato, onion or garlic. What must the rat-cat-eyeball eating people think of vegans?

The world is filled with unusual foods. What’s the strangest thing you have eaten on the road?

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Traveller’s Must: The Go-To Safety Food

by Martha Edwards on

When I travelled through Thailand, I saw a western-style restaurant that had a big sign saying, ‘Tired of chili ring sting? Eat here!‘ While a bit crude (but true), it was an effective draw for tourists who aren’t used to eating spicy Asian curries every day and simply wanted something bland; something from home.

After talking about eating pizza in Thailand, I got to thinking — I’ve had pizza in a lot of places. Every country I’ve been to, in fact. Except Korea and Cambodia, but even then I had spaghetti and meatballs, which is somewhat similar in it’s Western-ness. Pizza, for me, is my go-to food, what I eat when I don’t want to be adventurous and am simply craving a taste from home.

I think everyone has a ‘safe’ food that makes them feel a little bit less homesick when travelling. An overseas comfort food, if you will. For my mom, when she was trekking through the middle of Africa in the 70s, it was mashed potatoes. For my friend Jenny, it’s plain rice with a bit of butter. For Cheryl, it’s McDonald’s chicken nuggets. So, indulge me, and let me know what your’s is — that way, I won’t feel so silly for eating pizza when surrounded by Pad Thai and ancient Buddhist temples.

Bizarre Foods From Around The World

by Martha Edwards on

What constitutes typical North American food these days is kind of gross, if you ask me. I’m talking about all the processed junk we put in our bodies. But compared to some other ‘regional’ cuisines that are mentioned in this article, I guess we’re pretty lucky. Need examples?

  • In Iceland, for instance, Hakarl is made of putrefied shark meat. Sheep’s head (served in its entirety) is also popular.
  • In Saudi Arabia, camels are a popular item — camel’s feet and sour camel humps in particular.
  • Fried grasshoppers, earthworms and locusts are all the rage in Africa.

Want more info on bizarre foods? Check out The Weird Things People Eat Around the World. Ugh!

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve heard of or eaten? For me, it was a four-course meal made from a snake that was killed right in front of us in Vietnam. Dessert was a shot of snake’s blood mixed with whiskey. I was also a little grossed out by the pictures of black chicken in Taiwan that an old co-worker showed me. But although it looks like it’s rotten, it’s not — it tastes like … well … chicken!

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