What is Ramen?
Ramen is a Japanese noodle soup. It consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat or fish-based broth, often flavored with soy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as sliced pork, nori, menma, and scallions.
Why is Ramen the best?
There are three main reasons.
- The delicous broth
- The suculant noodles
- The warmth you feel with every bite.
History of Ramen
Etymology
The word ramen is a Japanese transcription of the Chinese lamian (拉麵).[1][2] In 1910, the first ramen shop named Rairaiken [ja] (来々軒) opened at Asakusa, Tokyo, where the Japanese owner employed 12 Cantonese cooks from Yokohama's Chinatown and served the ramen arranged for Japanese customers.[3][4] Until the 1950s, ramen was called shina soba (支那そば, literally "Chinese soba"). Today chūka soba (中華そば, also meaning "Chinese soba") or just ramen (ラーメン) are more common, as the word "支那" (shina, meaning "China") has acquired a pejorative connotation.[5]
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Origin
Ramen is a Japanese[6] adaptation of Chinese wheat noodles.[7][8][9][10][11] One theory says that ramen was introduced to Japan during the 1660s by the Chinese neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Shunsui who served as an advisor to Tokugawa Mitsukuni after he became a refugee in Japan to escape Manchu rule and Mitsukuni became the first Japanese person to eat ramen, although most historians reject this theory as a myth created by the Japanese to embellish the origins of ramen.[12] The more plausible theory is that ramen was introduced by Chinese immigrants in the late 19th[7][13] or early 20th century at Yokohama Chinatown.[14][15] According to the record of the Yokohama Ramen Museum, ramen originated in China and made its way to Japan in 1859.[13] Early versions were wheat noodles in broth topped with Chinese-style roast pork.[7]
By 1900, restaurants serving Chinese cuisine from Canton and Shanghai offered a simple dish of noodles (cut rather than hand-pulled), a few toppings, and a broth flavored with salt and pork bones. Many Chinese living in Japan also pulled portable food stalls, selling ramen and gyōza dumplings to workers. By the mid-1900s, these stalls used a type of a musical horn called a charumera (チャルメラ, from the Portuguese charamela) to advertise their presence, a practice some vendors still retain via a loudspeaker and a looped recording. By the early Shōwa period, ramen had become a popular dish when eating out.[citation needed] According to ramen expert Hiroshi Osaki, the first specialized ramen shop opened in Yokohama in 1910.[10][16]