I’ll admit that the two bowls of tonkotsu ramen I’ve had so far in Fukuoka threw me for a loop. I love that style of ramen… or do I? The two bowls I sampled in Fukuoka (the birthplace of tonkotsu ramen) were one-note porky in a way I found vaguely unsatisfying.
Though Hakata Ikkousha is a chain (and apparently they’ve just opened a location in Toronto), they serve some seriously acclaimed ramen — it’s frequently called one of the best bowls in Fukuoka.
Tonkotsu ramen — in which pork bones are boiled down for hours and hours until you wind up with a rich, creamy soup — might be the most famous style of ramen.
I should have known that the airport ramen wouldn’t be very good. I mean, it’s airport ramen. Any rational person would tell you that it’s not going to be very good.
After my sub-par experience at Aji No Karyu, I knew I couldn’t leave it at that. I had to eat at least one more bowl of ramen in Sapporo so that me and the city could part on good terms.
I think it’s safe to say that if you have to tell people that you’re famous, you’re not famous.
Aji No Karyu is mostly notable for being the ramen joint that Anthony Bourdain went to during the Hokkaido episode of No Reservations. That’s certainly the reason I wanted to try it.
Well, regardless of whatever else I do/see in Sapporo, I’m already incredibly glad that I came here if only for the ramen at Amewa Yasashiku.
I might have gone a little bit overboard with the ramen in Tokyo, so I made a conscious decision to avoid ramen in Sendai. As much as I love ramen (which is a lot, clearly), there’s so much great food in Japan to try.
But I obviously couldn’t leave without having at least one bowl. I mean, what do I look like, a maniac?
I’m a bit of a ramen obsessive (it might just be my favourite food on the planet), so obviously, I had to eat a bunch of ramen while I was in Tokyo. It was my duty and my obligation, and I did it happily.