About Ramen

History of Ramen

According to historians, Ramen originated in China thousands of years ago. Exactly how long ago is not known, but in 2005 a team of archeologists claim to have discovered a 4000 year old bowl of noodles in northwestern China. It is unknown exactly when the first noodles arrived in Japan, but the dish has been documented as early as the 17th century. Ramen became popular in Japan during the Meiji period, starting around 1860. In those days, many Chinese stall owners sold the noodles and gyoza from mobile stalls. Ramen was known as "Chuka-soba" which literally means "Chinese soba".

Most people now know about Nissin Ramen, whose founder Ando Momofuku invented instant ramen in 1958. Indeed, instant ramen was voted the greatest Japanese invention of the 20th century in a recent poll. Due to this invention people can enjoy a "cup" of ramen anywhere, anytime just by adding boiling water.

Today, ramen shops are everywhere in Japan and across the world, and each province, city, town and each shop has its own unique flavour and closely-guarded secret ingredient. Many provinces are very proud of their own ramen flavour and people travel the country to taste the alleged best ramen in Japan.

There are thousands of different variations of ramen, from Hokkaido's rich miso ramen, to Fukuoka's Hakata ramen. At Ichi-ban Boshi, we make a variety of ramen flavours which is unusual for a ramenya (ramen shop). Usually a shop will stick to one distinct flavour and style of ramen, sometimes with special chashu (roast pork belly) or other unique selling point.

There are some amazing ramenya's in Japan and it can be a terrific reason to visit the country. In Yokohama there is even a ramen museum with various flavours right there to try. One of the best ramenya's is actually in a small town in Kyushu called Tokushima. We know this because it has won many awards and was voted the best for many years in a row. If you travel on the highway in Japan you will probably stop at a highway rest area. Some very good ramen can be found at these rest areas too.

About our Ramen

Our three mainstayers over the years have been Miso, Tokyo and Shio ramen. Recently we added Tonkotsu ramen.

Miso is a popular flavour throughout Japan but is associated with Sapporo in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island. The richly flavoured soup with the typical toppings of roast pork, sweetcorn and beansprouts warms your body up and is ideal for cold weather. The miso paste is actually quite healthy and is made from soy-beans.

Tokyo ramen is very difficult to generalize. There are literally thousands of different variations of Tokyo ramen, but it is generally supposed to be light and delicate with a soba-like broth flavoured with soy sauce and with minimal toppings.

Shio ramen has a simple chicken broth soup and goes well with a variety of toppings.

Tonkotsu is one of the most popular flavours of ramen in Japan. Many shops actually have a mix of tonkotsu and shoyu, or tonkotsu and miso soups these days. Tonkotsu is the most time-consuming and difficult to make of all the soups. Pork bones are boiled overnight and then chicken, vegetables and spices are added to extract a rich broth.

We try to make our ramen exactly the same way it is made in Japan. Everything from the noodles, the chashu, the toppings and of course the broth. We often travel to the far corners of Australia to source the best ingredients for our broth, because this is the most important part of good ramen. In one legendary ramenya in Japan, only a certain type of fighting roosters' feet are used in the broth, because of the superior flavour and of course the boasting rights. Although we can't match that here, our ramen is nonetheless made to strict Japanese standards so you don't have to go all the way to Japan to experience authentic Japanese ramen.

Ramen in Australia

Australians are usually very easy-going and are willing to try new and different foods quite readily. Instant or "two minute" noodles have been sold in Australian supermarkets for a long time now, but now we are beginning to see many different varieties of instant cup noodles too. Most of these are from Korea or Indonesia. Japanese instant noodles are mostly only available from Japanese grocery stores and tend to be more expensive due to import costs and exchange rates. In Australia's major cities ramen noodle shops have proliferated and are gaining popularity. Along with some authentic Japanese ramenya's, we are beginning to see Western variations of ramen. Of course laksa and other East-Asian noodles are also very popular here in Sydney too.

Ichi-ban continues to be a leader in serving authentic Japanese ramen and other dishes here in Australia.