Ramentary: Christmas Ramen

My brother came out over Christmas break, which mainly achieved two things:

• It completely destroyed any hope I had of migrating to warmer climates for the 2 weeks.
• It gave me an excuse to do a lot of ramen-related traveling in the Kansai region.

In the short time he was here, we managed to visit 5 ramen-related establishments, including the Momfuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum. Since I’ve already written about 3 of the places (Ippudo, Jalan Viva Rock, and Jalan: the Original), I’ll limit this to new stuff.

I’ve written in previous issues about the ramen fair on the 10^th floor of the Kyoto Station ESTA (where Tsukemen TETSU is still one of my favorite tsukemen places), but my bro had never been there. Despite being in a prefecture known for a style all its own, we opted for a tonkotsu ramen chain, located out of Hakata, called Ikkousha (博多一幸舎). A quick glance at the menu revealed a tasty looking black sesame seed version, as well as one of the most ridiculous chashu-men bowls I’d ever seen. Many places offer chashu-men, which is your base ramen with extra pork, but some take it to extremes. Ikkousha is one such place. They blanket the ramen in thin strips of the stuff, effectively cutting off the rest of the bowl from view.

The soup at Ikkousha is what you’d expect from a proper Hakata chain good enough to be featured in the Kyoto Station Ramen Park. It’s chock full of flavor without being overwhelming, and really compliments the noodles and toppings. A fine, fine bowl, but not unlike other major Hakata chains, such as Ippudo.

The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum is a tribute to the man who invented instant ramen, a true pioneer and savior to poor college students everywhere. If you’ve ever eaten instant noodles either in a cup or in a block, you’ve tasted the fruits of this man’s labor.

There’s a mockup of his old house, information on how he first developed his process, and an example of every cup ramen every made by Nissin. You can also take a virtual tour of the process as if you were a noodle, watch old commercials, and learn about how they developed cup ramen for space travel. Perhaps the coolest corner is the do-it-yourself cup ramen. You purchase a cup, design it, and proceed to fill it with your choice of ingredients. Unfortunately, it was the holidays and there were about a hundred kids running around while their parents waited in line, causing a wait of up to an hour. We said nuts to that, and went on our way, but I still want to make my own cup ramen one day.