Kita no Daichi

The entrance to Kita no Daichi

On an unseasonably warm Friday afternoon, Micah was helping our couchsurfing guest with her temporary mobile phone as I perused the 2011 issue of Ramen Walker, looking for a recommended Shinjuku shop we hadn't already tried. For no particular reason, other than the bowl featured looking tasty, we decided on Kita no Daichi, a Hokkaido ramen shop in east Shinjuku.


Kita no Daichi's interior

The inside of Kita no Daichi is like many other ramen shops with bar seating and a couple tables. It's capacity is probably about 15 people, so I caution against going with larger groups. Actually our group was five people so I felt quite lucky for all of us to get seats together at the bar.


The specialty of this Kita no Daichi is the "Cheese and Mushroom White Miso Ramen"

Going with the specialty of the shop, I ordered the Cheese and Mushroom White Miso Ramen, as did my couchsurfing friend. Micah ordered the Karami Katsu: spicy tonkotsu broth with tonkatsu. The two other guests both ordered miso ramen, I think! After about 10 minutes waiting, we were all served our ramen!


Micah took this shot of our group


The Cheese and Mushroom White Miso Ramen!

The Cheese and Mushroom White Miso ramen came with a little bit of moyashi, a healthy sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and a handful of shimeji mushroom. With grated black pepper on top and a slice of chashu on the side, this bowl rounds out to the perfect heartiness. The miso flavor is noticeable, though with a lot more fat globules floating on top than your average bowl of miso. It's a strong taste, a bit salty and not for a person looking for a lighter flavor. The cheese and mushroom combination is certainly interesting, unlike any other ramen I've ever had. The Parmesan cheese melts into the soup, changing the flavor from straight up miso to a bit of a cheesy miso. The noodles are a bit on the soft side, so if you're a fan of firm noodles, then this shop is not for you. However Kita no Daichi knows how to make a good bowl of ramen!


The Karami Katsu Ramen

The Karami Katsu ramen boasted to be spicy. As a regular consumer of Nantsuttei: Misoya Hachiro Shoten's gekikara ramen, the Karami Katsu ramen was not so spicy, but it was spicier than Micah expected. In the center of the bowl was a dollop of spicy miso paste that needed to be mixed up to give a uniform spiciness. The katsu was juicy, not dry at all, and the breading wasn't too thick. The breading was softened by the broth but not to the point of mushiness. Micah says the chashu was not super fatty but flavorful nonetheless. There were plenty of noodles and although Micah often feels ramen needs an egg, he said this ramen was fine without one. Overall it was filling, all parts were flavorful in their own way but mixed well together.


Yum!


Gochisousama deshita!


Ramen Kita no Daichi

Phone: 03-3357-0056
Address: Tokyo, Shinjuku 3-28-2 Shinjuku 160-0022
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 23:00 ~ 16:00, 17:00 ~ 11:00 Holidays 11:00 to 21:00

Nantsuttei: Misoya Hachiro Shoten

Yesterday Shinjuku saw its first snowfall of the year. There have been cold winds cutting through the city and so the only course of action was to heat it up with some spicy ramen! Nestled amongst a small group of ramen shops (all delicious!) is the Nishishinjuku branch of Nantsuttei, this branch known as Misoya Hachiro Shoten. Step inside and buy your tickets from the vending machine.


On the left you can see the variety of instant ramen you can buy and bring home!

Micah and I both decided on the Spicy Miso Ramen and one small bowl of rice. We handed our tickets to the chef and were asked how many noodles we'd like. We had the option of futsu (regular or normal amount) or oomori (extra noodles!) We were then asked how spicy we'd like our ramen. Nantsuttei has four choices, in increasing spiciness: Standard, Choikara, Chukara, and Gekikara. Micah and I have eaten at Nantsuttei several times, Micah always gets Gekikara (the spiciest option). I've tried Chukara and Choikara. The first time I tried Chukara it was too spicy for me to finish, so I usually go with Choikara, though it's not quite spicy enough for me. Once more, Micah went with Gekikara and I asked for Choikara.


The spiciness chart
Nantsuttei's translation of the chart is as follows:
Want a nose-bleeding, hotter flavor? We offer you four levels of hotness as follows.
-Standard
-Moderately hot
-Medium hot
-Extremely hot
[For customers who plan to order Extremely hot]
Please refrain from ordering it if you have heart trouble, feel ill, or have a sensitive stomach. Please note that your social status will not be raised if you eat Extremely hot. If you are brave enough to challenge yourself in private, please try Extremely hot.


One chef, doing his thing

Seating at Nantsuttei is all bar seating, with a capacity of about 12 people. So it's not the best place to go to with a large group, but for a few people, it should be fine. When we arrived around 9:30pm on a Wednesday night and the shop was nearly full with only two non-adjacent seats open. However, a chef quietly asked two customers if they'd scoot over by a seat to open up two adjacent seats for Micah and I. About 10 minutes after we placed our orders our ramen was ready! However, when the chef handed me my ramen, she said "Chukara", which leads me to think my order had been misheard. I screwed my courage to the sticking place to brave the unconquerable ramen.


The chukara ramen!


Micah's gekikara ramen!

Both bowls have the same toppings and noodle-style but the only difference is the level of spiciness. The ramen comes with a healthy topping of moyashi (bean sprouts), negi (spring onion), chopped cabbage, two slices of chashu (barbecued pork slices), spicy oil, ground pork and black pepper. In addition to the black pepper, hot spice and garlic oil are also used. Noodles are thicker than average though still the perfect balance between soft and firm.

The gekikara ramen is SPICY! I am a fan of spicy food and I can only handle a few spoonfuls of broth! As Micah puts it, the ramen is immediately spicy and continues to build from there. Drinking the broth by itself is incredibly spicy. The ramen is piled with moyashi (bean sprouts) which provides a brief reprieve from the spicy broth.


Champion of epic spiciness, Micah enjoys his ramen

With trepidation I faced my chukara ramen. With the spiciness level so high, I could not follow my usual method of enjoying ramen. I usually start off with tasting the broth, usually a couple spoonfuls. Then I move on to the noodles. Unable to dive immediately into the spiciness, I first sampled the noodles. Due to the thickness of the noodles, they had a more noticeable flavor than thinner noodles. The taste is great and the noodles soak up just the right amount of the broth. I made sure to take enough breaks via the moyashi and chopped cabbage to keep up with the ramen. As a fan of spiciness and miso, I am very much in love with this broth. It's a bit of a challenge to drink the broth by itself, but in combination with the noodles, it's pretty great!


It's spicy but fun!

Micah and I ate as much as we could but both of us were unable to finish our broth as it was just so spicy! By the time I finished my ramen and Micah had finished his ramen and rice, we were stuffed to capacity! I'd like to note that the jump between chukara and gekikara is huge! While I was able to finish nearly my entire bowl of chukara, I know that I would not be able to get past a third of the bowl of gekikara. Its spiciness just builds and builds and builds! The chukara had some tears running down my face near the end, but was still delicious and bearable. I definitely would not recommend anything higher than "Standard" for anyone who isn't confident in their ability to handle spicy food!


The chukara is on the left and the gekikara is on the right, check out how much redder the gekikara is!

Are you ready to challenge the spicy ramen of Nantsuttei: Misoya Hachiro Shoten? If you like miso and spiciness, Nantsuttei is sure to satisfy!



102, Plaza Nishishinjuku Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
Japan 160-0023
TEL 03-6304-0420 FAX 03-6304-0421

Ajigen Ramen

My favorite ramen shop in Tokyo is Ajigen. Ajigen is a tiny ramen shop that specializes in Hokkaido ramen. Ajigen has locations in Shibuya and Nerima but I only go to the shop in Ikebukuro. Ajigen is about a five minute walk from Ikebukuro station's west exit around the corner from Marui City, which we like to call "oi oi" because of the giant neon ○I○I atop the building. Keep going down the street Ajigen is on and you'll reach Rikkyo University.


Micah getting settled at the bar

Ajigen in Ikebukuro is one of those hole-in-the-wall type establishments. If we didn't walk past it when we walk home from the station, we would probably have never seen it. With bar counter type seating, Ajigen can hold about 11 or 12 customers. Dinner hours seem to be their busiest times. Though I've never seen a line for Ajigen, there have been a couple times when Micah and I were unable to get seats because the place was full. During lunch hours, the place is much quieter. So if you want to go in a group of three or four, lunch time would be the best bet for your group to get seated together.


The menu

Ajigen specializes in Hokkaido ramen. While Hokkaido is mostly known for miso ramen, miso is in fact specific to Sapporo, hence the first bowl listed on the menu is Sapporo Miso ramen. Asahikawa city in Hokkaido is known for its shoyu (soy sauce) ramen so next up on the menu is Asahikawa Shoyu. Beneath that we have Hakodate Shio (salt) ramen and if you've been paying attention you've already deduced that Hakodate is a city in Hokkaido famous for its shio ramen. Hakodate ramen uses a slice of squid instead of chashu but I don't know if Ajigen does this. Interestingly, the description for the Hakodate ramen says "とんこつさっぱり食べたい", which says something along the lines of "a refreshing tonkotsu meal", so I guess it's a shio and tonkotsu mix?


Left to right: garlic paste, black pepper, red pepper

Two of the three nights I was in Hokkaido I ate ramen in Sapporo. At both ramen shops, on every table or counter was a jar of garlic paste. You could add a dollop of garlic to your ramen if you wished for it to have a stronger garlic flavor. At Ajigen in Ikebukuro, you can also find jars of garlic paste lining the counter. I haven't seen this in most ramen shops in Tokyo, which makes me wonder if this is specific to Hokkaido. I'm a huge garlic fan but I never use it when I order ramen at Ajigen because the broth tastes perfect as is. I wish I could say the same for other shops that don't offer garlic paste because sometimes I find their ramen in sore need of an extra kick of garlic!


Sapporo miso ramen!

Ever since I started going to Ajigen I've only ordered one thing: Sapporo miso ramen. Micah has ordered just about everything on the menu and he says it's all delicious but for me, there's no need to order anything but the Sapporo miso. The broth looks to be made from white miso; it has no hint of red miso that I can taste. It's much creamier than miso soup and it tastes as if it's been blended a bit with tonkotsu broth. Although creamy, it doesn't appear to be too fatty. The amount of grease fat floating on the surface in Ajigen's typical bowl of Sapporo miso ramen is far less than I see at many ramen shops. Ajigen's Sapporo miso has ruined me for miso ramen at most other shops. Either the miso taste isn't strong enough or there's too much goma (sesame seed), the miso flavouring is just simply subpar to Ajigen's Sapporo miso.


Micah's orochon ramen

Micah ordered from the right side of the menu. There's miso orochon, kimchi ramen, and tekamen (red hot iron noodles is the literal translation.) It took a lot of digging around on the web but it appears that orochon refers to a fire festival that takes place in northern Hokkaido. At other ramen shops you can choose how spicy you want your orochon ramen, but at Ajigen the orochon is miso flavored and has only one level of spiciness. A huge tantanmen fan, Micah is unfazed by the spiciness of this ramen. However, he is a fan of its flavor and he recommends the tekamen if you want something truly spicy.


Itadakimasu!

Ajigen is a shop whose ramen I never fail to finish, noodles, broth and all. The noodles are slightly more firm than cheaper establishments and are quite delicious. The Sapporo miso ramen comes with the basic toppings: a pile of moyashi (bean sprouts), a liberal handful of chopped negi (spring onion), a slice of chashu (barbequed pork), and wakame (a type of seaweed, different from nori.) While not the biggest wakame fan, I find its flavor does not sully the ramen here, so don't let that deter you if you don't like wakame. The amount of moyashi and negi they put in your bowl is heaped on in generous portions so if you leave Ajigen hungry, it's not the chef's fault!


Good to the last drop!

Ajigen in Ikebukuro is the perfect place for dinner on a cold winter's night. It always keeps Micah and I warm on the 20 minute walk home from the shop. It's location is pefect for us and altogether convenient. It's actually also around the corner from a tsukemen shop that was featured in the latest Ramen Walker although the name escapes me now. Stop by for lunch or dinner, you'll get a great bowl of ramen at any time.


Ajigen
Ikebukuro
Nishi-Ikebukuro
Take the left past the Marui City, Ajigen is on the left side of the road before the Sunkis convenience store
11am-6am, I think...