Hokkaido Ramen
There are many local ramen types all over the country that incorporate the characteristics and food culture of each region.
Here we will introduce popular ramen that is enthusiastically loved in Hokkaido (Sapporo, Hakodate, Asahikawa, Kushiro, Muroran).
1) Sapporo Ramen
・Sapporo became crowded with ramen shops starting with street ramen shops around 1945 to 1945, just after the end of the war.
・At that time, soy sauce-flavored pork bone soup was very popular.
・“Daruma-ken” by Senji Nishiyama, a shop run by Morito Omiya (Aji no Sanpei), later the developer of miso ramen, was also one of the stalls.
– Morito Omiya learned ramen from Kanshichi Matsuda and opened “Aji no Sanpei”.
・Takayuki Nishiyama spins out the noodle-making department of Darumaken and creates thick, curly yellow egg noodles.
・Thus, the original form of “Sapporo Ramen” was created from the encounter between Morito Omiya, Senji Nishiyama, and Takayuki Nishiyama.
・A big reason why Sapporo ramen is so delicious is that they use high-quality snowmelt water from Mt. Teine to make the noodles.
・It can be said that there are many famous local ramen in places where the water is delicious.
・In addition to the traditional “Ramen Yokocho” and “New Ramen Yokocho,” there is the Kotoni area, where many unique ramen shops gather.
・A new “Ramen Alley” will appear where you can find flavors from all over the world, from Tokyo-style clear soup ramen to Kyushu-style rich ramen.
・Nowadays, Sapporo has become a market where various types of ramen compete for their taste.
・No matter what ingredients you use or what flavor you have, if you cook it in Sapporo’s water and climate, it will be made in Sapporo.
・This is Sapporo ramen.
・Sapporo will forever be a ramen city.
・* Morito Omiya is the person who opened “Aji no Sanpei”.
2) Asahikawa ramen
・It’s very simple, with soy sauce-flavored soup, chewy thin noodles, and only pork, menma, and green onions.
・This is the ramen that has been loved for many years in Asahikawa, which is crowded with 400 ramen shops.
・It started around the same time as Sapporo, around 1945.
・Edanao, the son of Kumasaburo Kato, who made hand-made soba noodles in Teshio-cho, opened a ramen restaurant called Hachiya.
・Also, in the same year, Yoshiya Murayama of “Aoba” also started selling ramen at a food stall with his Daihachiguruma.
・These two stores are said to be the beginnings of today’s Asahikawa ramen.
・After “Heiseiken” opened in Sapporo in 1989, Asahikawa ramen restaurants opened in Sapporo one after another.
・It immediately sparked an Asahikawa ramen boom, and became well-known in Tokyo and all over the country.
・The specialty of this soup is that it uses not only pork bones but also seafood.
・Another feature is the thin noodles with a low water content to bring out the flavor of the flour.
・These noodles absorb the soup, making the noodles themselves delicious and creating a unique texture.
・Famous restaurants such as “Hachiya” and “Aoba” still impress ramen fans all over the country as famous restaurants among famous restaurants.
・The appeal of Asahikawa ramen is its authentic taste, which has been cultivated by the tastes of local people over many years.
3) Hakodate Ramen
・Clear soup with straight, thin noodles.
・The soup has a light, salty taste that is characteristic of Hakodate ramen.
・Hakodate ramen retains the shape of Chinese noodle dishes the most out of today’s Japanese ramen.
・The existing Chinese Hall in Omachi conveys this exchange with China.
・Inside this building, which opened in 1909, there was a Chinese restaurant called “Rantei.”
・From the Meiji period to the Taisho period, Chinese food culture was introduced through restaurants and the roots of ramen were established.
・In the early Showa era, ramen appeared as “China soba”.
・After the war, ramen started at food stalls, just like in Sapporo.
・However, the traditions from Chinese cuisine have been inherited here as well, and have continued to this day.
・Hakodate is still characterized by the fact that people eat ramen at “Chinese restaurants” rather than “ramen specialty restaurants.”
・The soup is clear even though it is pork bone based.
・When making soup, it is important to adjust the heat to low so that it does not boil, and to frequently remove the scum.
・Depending on the restaurant, vegetables, kelp, chicken bones, etc. are also used.
・The ingredients are simple: roast pork, green onions, and menma.
・The curl-free noodles are smooth to the touch, and you can enjoy a refreshing aftertaste.
