One of Yokohama’s local ramen varieties is something called sanmamen. In Japan “sanma” usually means Pacific saury, but the taste has nothing to do with saury at all.
The sign
The shop has a long history, but this branch is a neat, tidy place inside Yokohama Station.
The menu
The number one seller is of course the sanmamen.
Today’s set menu
It has a real neighbourhood-institution feel to it.
The menu
The prices look pretty reasonable too.
Wontonmen
This wasn’t the one I ordered, but it wasn’t bad at all.
Gyoza
The gyoza was just so-so..
Today’s main event, the sanmamen
The defining feature of this ramen turns out to be the ankake, a thick starchy sauce loaded with vegetables, ladled over the top. The flavour itself is a plain shoyu ramen, but with the ankake on it your whole body warms right up. Given the Yokohama setting, I found myself guessing that ramen developed here as a cheap, easy dish that gave the dock workers of old both nutrition and stamina.
The noodles
The noodles too were an easygoing style, the kind you could happily eat as a staple every day. To become Yokohama’s soul food, I thought, this is exactly the level you have to hit.
A bread fair I came across while wandering around the station
The station is huge and connected to a department store, so there are all sorts of fun events on.
All sorts of bread..
It was late in the evening, so a lot of the bread from the famous bakeries was already gone.
Bread
Bread
A tonjiru set-meal specialist
There are places like this too.. With so many people living here, there’s plenty of interesting stuff around. Yokohama looks pretty livable as well.
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