Japanese Ramen House

While Ramen is not gluten-free or in any way Miss Lily friendly, it is one of my favorite things about Japan. Before moving here my experience with Ramen was limited to Top Ramen, you know those $.25 packages of Ramen in the grocery store. I never cared for it. I was therefore hesitant to try Ramen here in Japan. There are so many wonderful things and eating out is so expensive I didn't want to waste my eating out opportunities on Ramen. That is one of my biggest quandaries living in a foreign country for a limited time. Do I eat the things I have tried and know I like or do I adventure out and try new things, spending money and taking the chance I may not like it? A couple of years ago a friend of mine insisted that I try Ramen.

There we were three new moms with our babies sitting on the floor of a Ramen house with our babies in there car seats sitting next to us. What was I thinking? There were regular tables, but my friend she insisted we eat Japanese style on the floor. Not so easy for me to sit on a pillow next to my little one and eat a huge bowl of soup. As soon as I took my first bite, all the discomfort of my position evaporated.

Japanese Ramen is the most incredible thing I have ever eaten in my life. The winters here are cold and this huge bowl of warm homemade broth and hand rolled noodles warms me from the inside out. The broth comes is many flavors, I have tried the miso and the soy, both are excellent. The noodles come in various sizes, thin to incredibly thick, although I think that the fat noodle are called Udon noodles and therefore if you order soup with Udon noodles you are not technically eating Ramen, although this is sold at Ramen houses. There is all different types of veggies or meat floating in your Ramen, depending on what you order. You can even order kimchi in your Ramen, which is cold spicy pickled cabbage floating in your hot savory ramen. It is all delicious and has the addictive msg which soothes the soul and causes massive headaches and withdrawal. After eating anything laced with msg I get a good couple of hours of blissful drunk like peace before the headache sets in. I recommend taking some ibuprofen with the meal to counter the effects of the msg.

Ramen houses are typically very small, little shacks that seat about 10 people. You sit shoulder to shoulder with the other people. One of my favorite places there is only room to sit on the stool at the counter. But, with my friends at my first experience we were at a good sized restaurant, good sized for Japan means eight tables and a counter.

To eat the huge bowl of Ramen you are given one is only given chopsticks. Ramen is soup, how does one eat soup with chopsticks. I mean I am getting better but soup? We looked around at the Japanese people seated around us and found that one eats the noodles with the chopsticks and drinks the broth from the bowl. The noodles are very long and it would be difficult to wind the noodles around chopsticks so I watched the Japanese for awhile and discovered that they lift the noodels and nibble on the as they hang from the chopsticks to the soup. I had a bit of trouble learning how to do this without getting soup all over my face and having noodles drop all over the table. I think I may need some more practice. Now that the first snow has come and gone and the temperatures have fallen it is time to revisit my love of Ramen.

I especially love it at our favorite ski resort. You go to a vending machine, which has pictures of all the dishes, no english, and you put in your money and get a ticket from the machine. You take the ticket to the counter and give it to the guy. Then you go to the next counter to pick up your food. You tend to have to stand in line at each place, one line for the vending machine, one line for the first counter and another line for the second counter. It took me standing in the wrong line several times before I got the system down correctly. Mandy and I were skiing together that day and she ended up not liking the dinner she had chosen and so I only got one or two bites of Ramen that day as I exchanged dinners with her. But, those one or two bites were divine.

I will be missing the Ramen when we leave here. We just got the "RIP" down and have decided to leave here as we are currently scheduled to do in March of 2007. The process of moving in the military is beyond my comprehension. From what I understand about a year before we are scheduled to leave (which would be around now) we are asked if we are wanting to stay at this base or leave as scheduled. Not that they give you what you ask for all the time, but they are kind enough to ask your preference. So we took a family vote and unanimously voted to mark the paper that we want to go. Next we will find out what bases have position available in Jeff's career field at his rank and we will list those bases on our "dream sheet". Then we wait for over a year to find out if any of those bases "pick us up". Only time will tell. The only thing for certain is, well nothing is certain in the military is it. Gotta roll with it.