Don’t just eat that ramen: Go to a museum and learn about it
Print Edition
There are two kinds of ramen in this world. There’s the packaged staple of dorm-room cuisine, one of the most processed, industrialized foods ever invented. And then there’s the trendy, artisanal, handmade soup that fans line up for hours to try.
But in Japan, ramen isn’t just for eating: There are entire museums devoted to it. Yokohama, a short train ride from Tokyo, has one museum for instant ramen and another for handmade ramen, and both offer samples to taste or take home.
At the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum, you’ll find nine shops showcasing different styles of ramen. The English brochure helpfully describes the soup at each, noting whether the noodles are straight, curly or wrinkled, and how thick they are using a five-point scale. The richness of the broth is also rated on a five-point scale.
At each shop, you order and pay for your ramen in an old-fashioned way, via a ticket vending machine in front with photos on the buttons. Some varieties are offered in small portions so you can try more than one type, although for some visitors, one small portion will be enough. If you can’t tell, ask the staff which button is mini-ramen.
A bit overwhelmed, my friend and I chose the nearest shop that didn’t have a line, selling ramen from a replica of a shop in Kyushu (in the south of Japan) founded in 1954. The broth was delicious as were the crumbles of roasted garlic sprinkled on top.
Other choices include what’s claimed to be the most famous miso ramen in the country, from Hokkaido, and a replication of soup from a shop in Tohoku that was swept away in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The ramen shops are located in a two-story re-creation of a romantically shabby 1958 city shopping district, eternally bathed in twilight. There are also movie posters and shop facades for a post office and pawn shop, along with a real store selling old-fashioned candy and toys. It’s a period that evokes nostalgia for the Japanese. Some things may also be familiar to Americans of a certain age, like a vintage Coke machine.
In the gift shop, you can assemble a customized package of ramen to take home, choosing from different kinds of vacuum-packed fresh noodles, soup flavor and flavored oil, with a personalized label. The shop also sells prepackaged ramen, bowls, spoons and other souvenirs. Nearby are exhibits about ramen in Europe, regional ramen around Japan and historic ramen-making implements.
Yokohama also has a branch of the Cup Noodle Museum, which is designed for kids. Run by an educational foundation that Ando started, the fun here is designed to support some high-minded goals with exhibits about creativity and invention.
Exhibits include a reproduction of the modest shack where Ando invented Chicken Ramen, a display of the astonishing number of varieties of instant ramen that the Nissan Food Products company has produced since then, and a food court called Noodles Bazaar, said to reproduce an “Asian night market” and “eight varieties of noodles that Ando encountered during his travels in search of ramen’s origins.” The food stands include Italian pasta, Vietnamese pho, and dishes from Kazakhstan, China, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. And there’s a play area where kids can experience the Cup Noodle manufacturing process from the point of view of the noodle.
For a separate fee for a timed ticket, kids can make their own personal Cup Noodle, decorating the cup, then putting in the noodles and choosing the soup and toppings. There’s also the much more involved Chicken Ramen Factory, a 90-minute session where participants make the noodles from scratch.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
