In Takayama the bowl arrives small and dark. A clear, deep amber broth, a tangle of thin curly noodles, slices of pork belly, a little pile of menma and a pinch of chopped long onion: nothing else is on top. The portion is light enough that people eat it between meals, the way other towns reach for a snack. This is Takayama ramen, the chuka soba of the Hida mountains in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. The broth is chicken with dried sardines and bonito, and the soy goes into the pot rather than the bowl, so it tastes clean and savoury, with a deep, slightly sweet soy note running through the chicken and fish.
Soba Means Chuka Soba in Takayama
Ask for soba in Takayama and you get this bowl. Locally, "soba" means chuka soba, the Chinese-style wheat noodle soup, and buckwheat noodles are called nama soba or nihon soba to tell them apart. Hardly any shop in town puts the word ramen on its sign. The noodle portion is small, about 3½ oz (100 g), and every shop keeps a children's ramen on the menu, which says a lot about when people eat it: as a bite in the afternoon as much as a meal.
Takayama was a direct territory of the Edo shogunate, and a strong soy sauce culture grew up there. Chuka soba took on a dark, Kanto-style soy flavour, while the town's buckwheat noodles and udon, shaped by Kyoto influence, stayed lighter and Kansai-style.
The soy goes into the stockpot
Most ramen shops put tare in the bowl and pour broth over it. Takayama shops pour soy sauce and mirin straight into the stockpot and simmer the broth with them, a method that is rare in Japan and known simply as the Takayama way. With no separate tare to swap, salt and miso versions never really took hold, so the town's ramen is soy. The method has a second effect you can taste across a day: as the pot reduces, the broth gets stronger, lighter at noon and deeper by night, and regulars talk about the hour of broth they like best.
The frame is shared but every shop draws it differently. The balance of chicken, seafood, vegetables and shiitake changes from counter to counter. Kikyoya, open since 1951, simmers its broth for more than ten hours, and Miyagawa Chuka Soba, open since 1975, makes its own straight noodles with little water in the dough, even though thin curly noodles are what most shops serve.
A night stall in 1938
The usual starting point is 1938, when Masago Soba began selling chuka soba from a street stall. Its founder, Tokimune Sakaguchi, worked as a cook in a ryotei by day and pulled the stall at night; by the usual account he learned to make Chinese noodles watching Chinese cooks while training at Gajoen in Shibaura, Tokyo. Tsuzumi Soba (1956), Nakatsubo (1964) and Jingoro (1983) followed among the older names, and at last count the town had more than thirty shops. The anime film Your Name, in which the main characters order Takayama ramen, is commonly credited with sending a new wave of visitors looking for a bowl.
Ingredients (serves 4)
The broth comes out at about 6¼ cups (1.5 L), which gives each bowl about 1½ cups (375 ml). The tare, broth and menma below are all sized for four bowls.
Takayama noodles are low-hydration, with roughly 28–32% water in the dough, thin, curly and square in cross-section, cut on a #20 cutter, in portions of 100–110 g. Look for fresh chuka noodles labelled low-hydration and thin curly. That firm, curly strand holds the clear broth instead of soaking it up.
Wheat (noodles), soy (soy sauce, mentsuyu), fish (bonito flakes, dried sardines) and sesame (sesame oil). Check the label on bought noodles; many contain kansui and other additives. Eggs are only in the seasoned-egg variation.
Equipment
- A large stockpot of at least 4¼ quarts (4 L), to hold both quarts of water with the bones, pork and vegetables
- A second pot or a large bowl to strain into
- A fine-mesh sieve and a cotton straining cloth
- A fine wire skimmer
- A large pot for boiling the noodles
- A colander
- A small frying pan for the menma
- A cutting board and sharp knife
- Four ramen bowls
Choosing and Substituting
Chicken carcasses come from a butcher or the meat counter of a larger supermarket. Carcasses with the neck still attached give the broth more body, so take them when you see them. Thick-shaved katsuobushi, niboshi, kombu, dried shiitake, salt-preserved menma and both kinds of soy sauce are all at Japanese grocers and online. Ordinary thin bonito flakes work, but they give up their flavour much faster, so steep them for less time or they turn the broth harsh.
The two soy sauces matter. Dark soy brings the colour and most of the salt; light-coloured soy adds salt without darkening the broth further. If you can only find dark soy, use 6 tbsp (90 ml) of it in place of both: the broth comes out darker and tastes different, but it still reads as Takayama ramen. Chinese light or dark soy and Korean soy differ in salt and colour and give a different bowl. Mirin-style seasoning has different alcohol and sugar from true mirin; use it if that is what you have, and taste the tare before you commit to all of it.
What carries the taste of Takayama abroad is short: a clear broth cooked over gentle heat, soy simmered into that broth, low-hydration thin curly noodles, pork belly cooked in the stock, and only menma and onion on top. Hida onion and homemade noodles can wait for a second round.
Method
Start by soaking the kombu, then blanch the bones while it softens. The long stretch in the middle is hands-off apart from skimming. The pork comes out of the pot when you strain, so slice it and cook the menma while the seasoned broth sits on low heat. At home, add the soy to the strained broth and let the two simmer together. Sekai Gohan has not cooked this recipe as a whole in its own kitchen, so taste and adjust as you go. Noodles come last, one portion at a time.
From the first bubble to the last, keep the broth at a slow simmer, never a rolling boil. A hard boil churns the fat into the broth and turns it cloudy, which pulls it away from the clear soy bowl Takayama is known for.
Cook the chicken bones and pork belly through. Wash every board, utensil and cloth that touches the raw bones before it touches anything else. Blanching water and the full stockpot are heavy and very hot: strain with both hands and pour slowly.
Keep the broth hot and the noodles apart until the last moment, and combine them right before the bowl goes to the table. Cooking one portion at a time is slower, but a single portion of thin noodles stays springy where a crowded pot goes soft.
When It Goes Wrong
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The broth is cloudy | It boiled hard, or the scum sat too long before skimming | Hold it at a slow simmer from start to finish and skim as soon as scum rises |
| The soy tastes sharp or too salty | Soy sauces differ in salt from brand to brand | Add four-fifths of the tare first, taste, then top up; loosen an over-salted pot with hot water |
| A raw, gamy smell lingers | The bones weren't blanched and rinsed well enough | Never skip the blanching; rinse until the bones look clean |
| A harsh, bitter fish note | The bonito and sardines steeped too long, or there were too many sardines | Strain soon after the aroma peaks; use fewer sardines next time |
| The noodles are soft and swollen | They sat in the water or the broth too long | Warm the bowls, cook one portion at a time and assemble at the last moment |
Serving, Variations and Storage
At the table
Set out vinegar and black pepper. Many people in Takayama pour some vinegar into the bowl partway through, and it brightens the dark soy against the fish. The small portion suits an afternoon bowl or a light supper, and on New Year's Eve some Takayama families eat chuka soba as their year-end noodles, often ordered in from a local shop.
Variations
- Hida onion in season. Hida ippon-futo negi is one of Gifu Prefecture's certified Hida-Mino traditional vegetables, grown in Takayama and Hida, and comes into season as the frosts arrive, from late autumn into winter. Chop the white part thickly: its strong sweetness rounds out the dark soy.
- Kombu vinegar. Takayama Ramen Sanmachi puts kombu vinegar on its tables. Soak a piece of kombu in vinegar and use that at the table; it adds a softer, savoury acidity in place of plain vinegar's sharpness.
- Homemade low-hydration noodles. With a noodle machine you can make your own: 12½ oz (350 g) Menyuki ramen flour, 0.12 oz (3.5 g) salt, 0.13 oz (3.6 g) powdered kansui and a scant ½ cup (108.4 ml) water, a 33% hydration dough, cut on a 1 mm cutter and crimped curly. It needs a noodle machine, and Sekai Gohan has not tried this formula.
- Seasoned egg. Tsuzumi Soba offers eggs three ways, raw, boiled and seasoned. Soft-boil eggs, peel them and soak them in some of the seasoned broth for a richer bowl; this adds egg to the allergens.
Storage
Cool leftover broth quickly, move it to a clean covered container and refrigerate it; as a rough guide, use it within 3 days. It also freezes in portions. Bring stored broth back to a full boil before serving. Boil noodles only for the bowls you are about to eat, and never keep cooked noodles.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does it differ from tonkotsu ramen?
Tonkotsu broth is pushed hard until the pork bones cloud it milky. Takayama broth goes the other way: chicken, dried fish and vegetables at a slow simmer, kept clear, with the soy cooked into it. The bowl is lighter, and the soy and fish carry the flavour.
Why does my second bowl taste stronger than the first?
The broth keeps reducing as it sits on the heat, which is the same thing that makes shop broth deeper at night. Keep it on the lowest heat between bowls. If it gets too strong, stir in a little hot water before ladling.
What if I can't find Hida onion?
Use a sweet white long onion, Japanese naganegi or a similar variety, and chop the white part for the bowls. The bowl comes out close, with a little less sweetness against the soy.
Can I use seasoned menma from a jar?
Yes. Seasoned menma needs no desalting and no further seasoning, so skip the menma part of step 8 and warm it briefly instead. Taste it with the broth and adjust to your liking.
