More on Amochinmi’s Onomichi Ramen (阿藻珍味の尾道ラ一メン)

We bought more Onomichi ramen (尾道ラ一メン) from Amochinmi (阿藻珍味) in spring.  They came with different soup stock.  One was a light version of the regular shouyu soup – ‘Assari!’ – prepared with usukuchi shouyu (light soy sauce 薄味醤油) and half the amount of pork fat.  Another was a rich version – ‘Noukou kotteri!’ – made with kogashi shouyu (caramelized soy sauce焦がし醤油).  The third was ‘Tonkotsu’ (とんこつ), a white stock of pork bone and in this case enriched with small fish from Seto Inland Sea and oysters from Hiroshima prefecture.  All were very good.

Assari! ramen

Noukou kotteri! ramen

Tonkotsu ramen

We ate them with slices of home-made chashu, and sometimes with boiled gyuutan (beef tongue).  

ramen with beef tongue

*  *  *

Amochinmi has introduced a number of cold ramen for the hot Japan summer.  The offerings include chilled lemon (冷やし檸檬ラーメン) and tomato ramen (冷やしトマトラーメン), cold ramen with sesame sauce (ごまだれ) and sweet vinegar sauce (甘酢だれ), and the spicy hot Hiroshima tsukeramen (広島流つけ麺).  Tsukeramen, originated from Hiroshima, is cold ramen eaten with a dipping sauce that has been spiced up with red hot chili pepper (唐辛子), nin’niku (garlic) and goma (sesame).  We are looking forward to trying all of them as soon as they are delivered.

*  *  *

Besides Amochinmi, we tried a shio koji (塩麴) ramen made by Menno Shimizuya of Hida (飛騨), Gifu Prefecture (岐阜県).  

shio koji ramen

Shio koji, the fermented product of rice inoculated with a mould culture called aspergillus oryzae (the same starter for sake, soy sauce and miso), salt and water.  It has been the latest trendy food ingredient in Japan for its health benefits.  Firstly, it is a probiotic.  Secondly, it contains much less sodium than salt but just as much umami.  It is being used in place of salt for seasoning and pickling.  We have enjoyed karaage (deep fried chicken meat) and tsukemono (pickled vegetables eaten with rice) marinated with shio koji, so we were eager to try this shio koji ramen.  We were surprised that the soup gave us a thirst for the rest of the day.  I could not understand that since one benefit of shio koji was to reduce the sodium intake.  Out of curiosity, I read the nutritional information on the back of the soup packet and was shocked that it contained 2,515 mg of sodium, 10% over the recommended daily limit of 2,300 mg.  Incredible!!! 

*  *  *

My not-so-precise recipe for making Japanese Chashu (チャ一シュ一):

Poaching liquid:  Put a cup of koikuchi shouyu (濃口醤油 dark soy sauce), mirin (みりん sweet cooking sake) and junmai sake (純米清酒 sake brewed without added alcohol) into a pot.  Heat up the liquid to a gentle boil.  Add sugar to your taste.  

Pork for Chashu:  The pork should have some fat.  Many people use kata rosu (肩口一ス shoulder roast) or bara (バラ pork belly).  I use both, and sometimes also sotomomo (そともも pork butt). 

Cooking the Chashu:  Make sure there is enough poaching liquid to cover the pork; add water if necessary.  Bring the liquid to a boil.  Add the pork.  Let the liquid returns to boiling.  Cover the pot and turn off the heat.  After 15 minutes, bring the liquid to a boil a second time.  Again, turn off the heat and leave the pork in the covered pot.  Repeat the process a couple of more times for a large piece of pork.    Slice the chashu thinly for ramen.  This quick recipe is very different from the usual ones that simmer the chashu for a long time until it is tender.    

Home made chashu

Save the poaching liquid:  The liquid keeps well if you refrigerate it after it cools down.  You can reuse it for making more chashu or braising other meat.  The liquid acquires more flavors from the meat with each use.  You can also reduce the liquid to make a thick sweet sauce similar to tare for yakitori and teriyaki.

Amochinmi Onomichi Ramen 阿藻珍味の尾道ラ一メン

A girl friend of Mrs. A sent her a present recently.  It was two boxes of Onomichi ramen (尾道ラ一メン) manufactured by Amochinmi (阿藻珍味).  Inside each box were four packs of nama ramen (熟成生麵) and four packets of concentrated soup stock.  

                     

*   *   *

Onomichi is a small scenic port city on the Seto Inland Sea side of Hiroshima Prefecture.  It has its own ramen style -- the noodles are straight, moderately skinny with smooth surface; the soup is shoyu (soy sauce) based, clear, made with stock of chicken and fish from the Inland Sea, and loaded with lard.

*   *   *

Amochinmi’s nama ramen is made with flour and egg white, and processed with kansui (lye water) to be chewy and resilient.  It has not been dried by heat and can be kept in a cool dark place for up to forty days.  Its ramen soup contains pork extract in addition to chicken stock.  It is blended with a broth of katsuo (鰹節 dried bonito), saba (鯖節 dried mackerel), konbu (昆布kelp) and local hirako iwashi (平子鰯 young sardines) for depth and flavor.  The soup packet also contains the secret weapon of lard and small pieces of solid pork back fat (see the pictures below).

       

*   *   *

I emptied the soup packet to 300 ml of boiling water and to melt the lard.  In a separate pot I cooked the loosened ramen in boiling water for a little over a minute.  Instead of the usual ramen toppings, I added just some nama wakame (塩蔵生わかめ a kind of raw seaweed packed with salt) to the assembled bowl of ramen.  Despite the simplicity, It tasted very good because of the lard and pork fat pieces (the little pieces floating in the soup in the picture).

      

Mr. and Mrs. A finished the box of ramen within days.

*   *   *

Besides its ramen, Onomichi is well known to many Japanese as it has appeared in novels, such as Anya Koro (暗夜行路) by Shiga Naoya (志賀 直哉), as well as movies that include the famed Tokyo Story (東京物語) directed by the great Ozu Yasujiro (小津 安二郎). 

*   *   *

Note: 1 Typical ramen toppings are

·         a couple of slices of chashu (叉焼 Japanese pork filet, not the Chinese BBQ pork)
·         menma (麺碼 seasoned fermented bamboo shoot)
·         a slice of kamaboko (蒲鉾 fish cake)
·         a sheet of nori (海苔 a kind of seaweed)
·         thin slices of negi (葱 Japanese scallion with long and thick white stem)
·         an ajitsuke tamago (半熟味付け卵 soft boiled egg marinated in a soy sauce mixture)

Note 2: Amochinmi has recently introduced a healthier version of Onomichi ramen with reduced amount of lard for customers who are conscious of calories intake.