Kagoshima ramen

Kagoshima Ramen

Kagoshima Ramen is offered by the shops which are located in Kagoshima area, southern Japan.

Outline

Its soup is mainly based on tonkotsu (pork bone broth). Also, it is a little cloudy soup and adds chicken stock, vegetables, dried small sardines, kelp, dried mushrooms and dried things. Kagoshima Ramen is the only ramen which is not influenced by Kurume ramen in Kyushu for geographical and historical reasons. The size of the noodle is a bit thicker than normal. Compared with other local varieties of ramen, the size of the noodle and the taste of the soup are very different; each shop has its way. When you order it, pickled radishes will be served. There are a lot of shops which have had miso ramen on the menu for a long time in Kagoshima and this is a quite rare in Kyushu. However, its taste is totally different from Sapporo’s one (Sapporo is famous for miso ramen), the style is localized and unique. It is called Kagoshima style miso ramen.

Kyushu ramen is nationally taken it for white tonkotsu soup. However, some Kagoshima ramen have brown soup. Generally, Kagoshima ramen focused on the harmony of every stock which makes the soup milder, so it is easier to eat all the soup than others. If eaters expect cloudy and rich soup like Kyushu ramen, Kagoshima ramen might not be enough. The original shop of Kagoshima ramen called Noboruya was opened in 1947. It is not nationally known, but popular as the local ramen.

Famous ramen shops in Kagoshima City

There are many famous ramen shops in Tenmonkan, downtown Kagoshima.

Noboruya

It is in Daikoku-cho on the edge of downtown and close to the port. There is only one type of ramen which costs 1000 yen. It is considered the root of Kagoshima ramen and one of the oldest ramen shops in Kagoshima. The taste of the ramen learnt from a Chinese patient as a reward when a woman founder was a nurse in Yokohama. She could not forget the taste and completed it after the trial and error in her home town, Kagoshima.

Komurasaki

This shop was nationally known since the first boom of localized ramen in the 1970s. Its taste is Komurasaki style rather than Kagoshima ramen and the taste is unique. Therefore, even people who love Kagoshima ramen and live in Kagoshima City, their taste is distinctly dividing. The contents of this ramen are very different to other Kagoshima ramen. For example, shredded cabbage, boiled pork, dried mushrooms are in it. In addition, its soup is a bit salty and the noodles are softer. The founder might have been a Taiwanese Chinese. Formerly, one famous variation used viper essence in the soup, but it is not on the menu anymore. Only the main shop has been run in Tenmonkan for a long time, but a second shop was opened in AMU plaza Kagoshima (station building) in 2004. The owner of “Komurasaki”, which is in Kokubu-cho, Sendai-city, in Tohoku area, northern Japan, has trained at this shop at first. Incidentally, it does not have any connection with the old ramen shops in Kumamoto of the same name.

Kuroiwa

It is average Kagoshima ramen and has a good reputation among the local people in Kagoshima. There are several shop branches in Kagoshima city around the original shop in Tenmonkan. The ramen set which is sold only in the shops is quite popular. In November 2006, the owner supervised instant noodle and started to sell by limited time and amount in Family Mart convenience stores in Kagoshima and Miyazaki. After that, it spread to all Family Mart in Japan.

Wadaya

Wadaya on Nigiwai Street in Tenmonkan is famous for a special miso-ramen drizzled with safflower oil just before it is served. Japanese celebrities from Kagoshima are said to come to eat its ramen whenever they return home. Also, the shop is known for its good hospitality, giving souvenirs away to tourists. It has a few branches in Kagoshima.

Zabon-ramen

Zabon ramen has its roots in a restaurant which was inside old Nishi-Kagoshima station, and some people say that this is typical Kagoshima ramen. However, it is more popular among tourists than local people. At this shop, waiters always advise customers to stir the noodle into the soup well and, it strongly impresses on the customers, especially visitors, since this is not generally said in ramen shops. It had some other outlets in Kagoshima, but strangely the Yojiro branch has a higher popularity than the others, so sometimes people can be seen making lines there at lunch time. The convenience store chain, Family Mart, has done a special limited sale of instant noodles by cooperating with the shop.