Where do you get your ramen?
1. Shin-Sen-Gumi Hakata Ramen, Fountain Valley
http://www.yelp.com/biz/shin-sen-gumi- hakata-ramen-restaurant-fountain-valley
2. Foo Foo Tei, Hacienda Heights
http://www.yelp.com/biz/foo-foo-tei-hacienda-heights
3. Kairakutei Inc, Tustin ($5 - good value)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/kairakutei-inc-tustin
4. Santouka Ramen, Costa Mesa
http://www.yelp.com/biz/santouka-ramen-costa-mesa
5. These are the "last resort" places for me in Costa Mesa:
Kohryu:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/kohryu-restaurant-costa-mesa
Mentatsu:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/mentatsu-ramen-costa-mesa
Oki Doki:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/oki-doki-restaurant-costa-mesa
Not recommended:
Daikokuya in Costa Mesa (inside Marukai): If you're stuck here and need to get ramen, go across the street to where the Japanese bookstore is, look for a little Japanese fast food place next to Game Stop that also serves ramen. Don't dine at Daikokuya here, the one in Little Tokyo is better.
Ebisu in Fountain Valley: Don't get ramen here, order the okonomiyaki isntead.
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A brief on noodles in Japan
The world's oldest noodle was found in Lajia dig site in Gansu, China. The noodle was made from millet and carbon dated to approx. 4,000 years old, during the Qijia civilization period:
However, local civilizations in Gansu that pre-dates Qijia, such as the Dadiwan (5850 BC), Majiayao, Yangshao, Banpo, etc. were all known to have cultivated millet and vegetables. These neolithic to bronze age civilizations had developed beyond hunter gatherers to agricultural civilizations with irrigation canals and fields. It's possible that they made noodles from millet at an earlier date, but no surviving evidence have been found.
As an interesting trivia, the Qijia civilization was centered around Lanzhou area in Gansu. Today, 4,000 years later, Lanzhou is still the capital of Gansu, and "Lanzhou Lamian", or Lanzhou pulled noodles, is popular across China, made by Hui Muslim chefs by hand. The soup base is usually beef bones and never pork, because pork isn't
halal to Muslims.
Chinese Hui Muslim chef making Lanzhou lamian by hand, & beef lamian:
There's a popular misconception that noodles were only introduced to Japan during the Meiji era (1868-1912) via Chinatowns in port cities. Udon, which is a wheat based thick noodle, was introduced to Japan as early as 9th century during the Heian period, most likely a Tang-Dynasty import. The Kanji for "udon" is used for wonton-style dumpligns in Chinese today. We're not sure if it was a mis-translation by the Japanese, or the usage in Chinese had changed over the past 1100 years.
Japanese "nabeyaki" Udon:
During the 1500's, Chinese noodles were introduced to the Ryukyu Kingdom, now known as Okinawa. The Chinese noodles were flour based, and to this day the Okinawan soba noodles are still made of flour, unlike those in Japanese mainland, which are made with buckwheat.
Okinawa Soba:
During the Edo period (1603-1868) the Japanese were making soba noodles with buckwheat flour. Soba noodles are thin and served chilled with dipping sauce, or hot in soup. "Soba" is also a Japanese word for "buckwheat", and Japanese Soba is supposed to contain at least 30% buckwheat, except for Okinawan Soba which contains none (as mentioned above).
Japanese buckwheat soba with dipping sauce:
After the Meiji reformation, the Meiji era (1868-1912) saw an influx of foreigners. Chinatowns popped up in port cities like Kobe, Yokohama, Nagasaki, etc. Chinese immigrants brought lamian, or "pulled noodles" to Japan during this period. These noodles were made of flour and not buckwheat, so the Japanese referred to them as "Chinese soba". In Nagasaki, Chinese restaurant owners served "Champon" noodles, which is very different in style from the lamian/ramen that we know today.
Chanpon noodles:
After WW2, many Japanese soldiers and colonists were expelled from China and went home to Japan. The post-WW2 period offered few economic opportunities, so some of the Japanese who lived in China for many years opened Chinese restaurants in Japan to make a living. It was around this time (late 1940s-early 1950s) that lamian/ramen became very popular across Japan as an inexpensive, but filling dish.
Ramen (lamian) as we know today:
In 1958, a Taiwanese immigrant to Japan named Wu Pai Fu, aka Momofuku Ando, invented the first instant noodle. He became chairman of Nissen Food products and exported his chicken-flavored instant noodle world-wide as "instant ramen". Note that although the noodle is written as "ramen", in Chinese and Japanese they say it like "lamian" and not with "R".
The creator of instant noodle, Mr. Wu Pai-Fu aka Momofuku Ando, Noodles Papa:
Nissin Food's original "Chikin Ramen", the world's first instant noodle:
Different regions of Japan has their unique lamian/ramen flavors and toppings, which I'll get to in later post. There are also other types of noodles popular in Japan, such as somen, a thin, white-colored wheat noodle. It's commonly served during summers chilled with dipping sauce, or in hot soup during winters as "nyumen".
Somen:
Eating chilled somen by sliding it along bamboo pipe with cold water:
The many varieties of ramen
Generally speaking, Japanese ramen (non-instant, restaurant style) can be classified by soup base, location/origin, and type of noodle. Rameniac has done an excellent job on a ramen styles write-up, scroll down on this page and check the 22 different ramen styles by origin:
http://www.rameniac.com/ramen_styles/
Since they didn't elaborate on the soup styles, I'll go over them briefly here:
Shoyu: Shoyu means soy sauce in Japanese. This type of soup base is usually clear and brownish, made from chicken and veggie with soy sauce added, typically served with straight or curly noodles.
Miso: This is basically Sapporo style soup base, made with miso, chicken, or fish. The soup base is thick and oily, typically served with thick or curly type noodles.
A variation of the miso ramen is the
spicy miso:
Shio: Shio means salt, this soup base is made from salt, chicken, veggies, fish, seaweed, and sometimes pork bones. The soup is clear and yellowish, and never boiled. If you order this and the soup looks white-ish, you know the cook boiled the soup base.
Tonkotsu: This is a pork bone soup base, made by boiling the pork bones until the soup turns white-ish. Typically served with straight noodles, Hakata style.
Recently there have been other creations, such as this "curry ramen" with curry soup base:
Sometimes the ramen restaurant does a "fusion" soup base, such as tonkatsu-shoyu.
LA Times ran an article on Santouka ramen a while back, worth reading:
http://xml.latimes.com/features/printedition/food/la-fo-rameniac2jan02,1,5623810.story?page=1