What is ramen?

What the heck is ramen?  Believe it or not, I ask myself that question everyday. To put it simply, it’s just noodles and soup. Only, it’s not quite that simple. Sure, we are all familiar with the packaged, dehydrated, three-minute, sometimes-in-a-cup, omg-that-sodium-will-kill-you instant ramen, but genuine ramen is significantly more complex and simplistically more arousing. So as I sit here in the heart of Tokyo—the world’s most distinct ramen mecca—after just slurping my 396^th bowl of 2011, I would like to give you an inside look on what I think ramen is today.

History aside (I’ll let the internet explain that), to take any bowl of ramen and to say, “THIS is ramen!” is virtually the beginning of a debate that will outlast a lifetime. For most of us, our first encounter with a bowl of ramen that touched our soul will likely serve as the benchmark, but to solely rely on that first bowl will only prevent us from having our soul touched again. Growing up as a second-generation Japanese-American, I had my first bowl of ramen at a very, very young age. Having slurped countless bowls since then, it wasn’t until recently that I honestly began to appreciate the true power of ramen and its unique diverseness.

In the Spring of 2009, I embarked on a trip that forever changed my life. In 28 days, I traveled to 21 different cities throughout Japan and ate 55 remarkable bowls of ramen. It was during this dream ramen journey that I realized how diverse a bowl of ramen could get based upon region. Aside from just being a bowl of soup and noodles, there seemed to be no standard in style—no tight rules and no limitations. These so-called styles of ramen were none other than regional interpretations based upon local ingredients, local resources, and local opinion. This is precisely why a bowl from the southern island of Kyushu will look and taste completely different, in all aspects, to a bowl from the northern island of Hokkaido. And to break it down even further, each ramen shop within the same region has its own fingerprinted recipe, resulting in no ramen ever being exactly like another. Which brings us right back to the original question: What the heck is ramen?

To be continued...