Futako-Tamagawa has an ayu (sweetfish) ramen shop that has been famous for ages. Do sweetfish and ramen really go together, though? Come to think of it, the manga Ramen Hakkenden (published in Korea as Ramen Cooking King) once featured ayu ramen.. I rarely have a reason to go all the way to Futako-Tamagawa, so I decided to take this chance. They open at 11:30, and when I got there at 11 there was one person ahead of me.
Ayu Ramen
A photo taken after I finished eating. There is a bit of a line.
How to eat the chilled ayu ramen
In summer, apparently they only serve the chilled ramen at lunchtime.. and it is not exactly cheap either.
A photo taken while waiting
It is hot outside, but inside it is bearable enough to wait.
Chilled ayu ramen (Ayu Suzu Ramen)
It comes with a whole ayu, and it is tasty. Whether it works as a ramen is another matter, though.
The full set
The bamboo cup holds what I suppose you would call the soup, a concentrated ayu extract. You eat it tsukemen-style, and it is not bad, but not especially remarkable either.
Rice
You finish by turning it into ochazuke.
The ochazuke is genuinely delicious. Ayu is a wonderful ingredient in Japanese cuisine, but whether ayu ramen really works is something I need to think about a bit more. Setting that aside, though, the service from both the person waiting tables and the person cooking was so good that it left an impression. When I have time someday, I would like to try the regular ayu ramen and judge it properly.
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