This post was written in 2006. Shop details and prices may have changed since then.
Nagahama ramen, the byword for Fukuoka’s famous tonkotsu ramen, has spread all over Japan. It’s become a proper name, just like Sapporo ramen, Kitakata ramen or Onomichi ramen.
There happens to be one near where I live, so I dropped in on my way past.
The sign.
It says “Hakata” at the bottom. In cases like this it’s a tonkotsu ramen shop 100% of the time.
The entrance.
It was late, but there were quite a few people inside.
I ordered the chashu ramen.
Places like this usually have a slightly salty broth. They keep the soup simmering the whole time, and a bit of saltiness gives it more of a kick. Still, it had no gamey smell at all and was an above-average tonkotsu ramen. The broth was surprisingly light rather than rich, with a clean taste, but it was well worth eating. One of these days I’ll have to make time for a trip to Fukuoka and compare.
However shabby a place like this is, I think it’s a flavor that’s impossible to copy in Korea. It’s the same as trying to find a proper Pyeongyang naengmyeon place in Japan. If you could, it’d be Korea, not Japan..