All you need to know about Tokyo can be summed up in a bowl of ramen, said Matt Gross in The New York Times. The simple concoction of broth and noodles, brought from China by Confucian missionaries in the 17th century, is an essential part of the Japanese capital’s history and culture. The steamy bowls of flavor incite passion among Japanese and foreigners alike, and have inspired blogs, magazines, movies, multilingual guidebooks, and their own museum, Tokyo’s Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum. How much do the Japanese love their noodles? Combine “New Yorkers’ love of pizza, hot dogs, and hamburgers, throw in some Southern barbecue mania, and you’ve still only begun to approximate Tokyo’s obsession with ramen.”
Tokyo is a city that can often seem closed off to “those who don’t know the social codes.” Yet all I had to do was mention my quest to find the perfect bowl of ramen, and I was “besieged with recommendations, reminiscences, and requests” to join strangers for meals. That’s how I ended up in a “tidy” alley, around the corner from a 7-Eleven, searching for Ganko, one of Tokyo’s roughly 4,137 ramen shops. I ducked under a ragged tarp to find a chef methodically filling bowls with “careful dollops of flavoring and fats, ladles of rich broth, noodles cooked just al dente.” All was silent until serving time. Then the slurping began—“long, loud, and enthusiastic” displays of appreciation.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
