On the way back from my trip to Kamakura, I stopped by Yoshimuraya, said to be the originator of Yokohama iekei ramen. I almost never have a reason to go to Yokohama, so I figured if I didn’t go on a trip like this I never would, and I pushed myself a bit. The place is popular, but the taste doesn’t have anything particularly distinctive about it. There’s no reason to seek it out when you visit Yokohama. But for people like me who take their ramen seriously^_^ it has historical meaning, so there’s a reason to go. It’s the head house of iekei ramen, one of the best ramen lineages in Tokyo, which has spread all over the city – practically one shop per neighborhood.
The front entrance
It seemed really popular, because there were quite a few copycat shops with similar names around it. Like “Yoshimura-tei”… I almost got fooled and walked into one at first. -_- The line in front of the shop was fairly long, but it moved quickly, so it didn’t take that long.
The basic table setup
There are lots of condiments. With such a long history, they’ve got this kind of thing well prepared.
Here’s the ramen.
I think it was 650 yen. Iekei ramen has a tonkotsu shoyu base. It takes a different path from the countless famous ramen shops popping up everywhere these days. It’s safe and unremarkable, so there’s no reason to travel far just to eat it, but on the flip side it’s a comfortable, familiar taste anyone can enjoy without fuss, so if there were one near home you’d want to go often. That’s why iekei ramen almost never shows up in the various ramen ranking charts, yet its popularity has spread so widely that when you walk around, there seems to be about one in every neighborhood.
The chashu was well soaked in the sauce. The spinach on top of the noodles is an unusual topping you rarely see on regular ramen. The broth is a little salty. It’s not bad, but the balance felt tilted to one side. In other words, it’s a punchy flavor young people would like. Among the iekei ramen I’ve had, this place wasn’t at a particularly high level. The name “iekei” (“ie” lineage) comes from the fact that the guys who trained here and went independent all named their shops something-something-ya (家, “house”). They say there are only eight iekei shops officially recognized by the main house, but if you count the disciples’ disciples, there’s a huge number of them. There’s one in my neighborhood too, and I sometimes drop in late at night.
The noodles
The broth clings well to the noodles. It’s a bit hard to enjoy a springy chew, but they match the tonkotsu shoyu broth brilliantly. As befits the originator of iekei, they served a truly orthodox iekei ramen.
They’re boiling the stock in the kitchen.
They’re making the stock with a huge amount of pork bones. This performance was fun too. I’ve hardly ever seen a place with this kind of concept. I think it’s better to go thinking of it as a tourist attraction rather than a great place to eat.
After a bowl, I took a walk around downtown Yokohama to help it digest.
The station
Being a tourist spot, it was crowded and hectic on the weekend.
Graffiti street
The graffiti seems to have changed a lot since I was here before.
The Nippon Maru
The Ferris wheel
It used to be really famous. Until Odaiba came along, that is..
Apartment towers
The waterfront is lovely and the facilities are great, so Yokohama looked like a really nice place to live, but getting into Tokyo is a bit of a hassle.. I’ll have to be content with visiting now and then.