The Secrets of Sapporo's Best Street Ramen

Sapporo, on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, is one of the three ramen capitals of Japan, the other two being Fukuoka and Kitakata.

Although the origin of this dish is Chinese, in Japan it dates back to 1868, when it went from a feudal system to an imperial government, leaving behind a period of social and economic isolation.

The opening made it possible, among other things, for the Chinese technique of hand-pulled wheat noodles to be introduced to Japan through its ports.

The workers immediately became fond of those elastic and alkaline noodles bathed in a fish or meat broth.

Since then, the ramen run has been a success.

In Susukino, the liveliest neighborhood with the most nightlife in the city, is the ramen alley.

It is not difficult to find it: a large sign points it out: Sapporo Ramen Yokocho is read in large letters.

The alley is a corridor less than two meters wide and less than 30 meters long, occupied by a handful of ramen restaurants since the mid-20th century.

At that time, Japan, with the help of the United States, was recovering from the social and economic devastation suffered during World War II.

The prevailing food rationing triggered the popularity of wheat noodles and the proliferation of stalls selling bowls of ramen at a very affordable price.

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The gallery, which runs between two buildings and connects two streets, does not have a roof, but is covered by a dense network of pipes, cables, electrical devices and lanterns, which barely let the rain and snow through.

You can come to this alley to eat miso ramen, the specialty, and take shelter from the cold.

The call effect causes queues at the entrance of restaurants.

Premises with sliding doors, blinds at head height and wooden bars.

Small spaces to enjoy in solitude, sandwiched between strangers and where you eat in front of the cook, the teacher.

The silence of the place is broken by the water boiling in large pots, the

sautéing the vegetables, the sipping of each other, mixed with the voices of a radio or television.

Neon advertisement at the entrance to Sapporo Ramen Yokocho, the alley of ramen, where the main places in the city are concentrated.Alamy Stock Photo

Daruma-ken is the oldest ramen restaurant in the city.

Since 1947 it opens at noon and closes when it runs out of gender.

It can be accessed from inside the fish market or from the street.

Its walls are lined with photos and newspaper clippings,

that certifies the tradition of the site.

There are four tables for four people and a bar with 11 seats.

On it there are chopsticks and pepper pots to be poured into the bowls as desired.

The only thing you can hear is a radio and the kitchen extractor hood, a device that is not enough to absorb the smoke from the cigarettes that are allowed to be smoked.

What is prohibited is taking photos of the couple who run the place while they cook.

Eating ramen is a taste and visual experience.

The cook puts a noodle in his mouth to prove his point.

A few minutes later he sings my plate and serves it to me.

made into broth and which has the same effect as a splash of cool water on the face in the morning.

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The short history of this dish allows ramen cooks to be mavericks.

Freeing yourself from the shackles of tradition and enjoying greater flexibility in cooking is a blessing in Japan.

Rather than experimenting and trying new mixes, the ramen cook also works to improve, hone his skills, and polish his technique.

Preparing the noodles in an artisanal way is one of the features that differentiate one restaurant from another.

There is also instant ramen.

A life saver for students, people in a hurry and without yen.

The master cooks facing the diner, who becomes a theater spectator in which the chef is a silent actor attentive to everything that is cooking on the stove.

There are pots in which the broth is made, baskets in which the pasta drains as you stir it with chopsticks and

with which you sauté vegetables with a twist of the wrist or with the help of a ladle.

Calm and sweating, he waits for the pasta to be ready, noodles that will finish cooking in the broth.

Ramen is not a dish, it is an important move.

The smell given off by the broth is a siren's song that penetrates to the bottom of the deep bowl.

The rubbery noodles are barely visible, entombed by tender, crunchy bamboo shoots and other vegetables;

radish, watercress, broccoli, spring onion, plus buttery pork and poached eggs.

A harmony of aroma, flavor, texture and temperature.

A layered meal, more intense than subtle.

One of the food stalls in Sapporo's ramen alley.

Alamy Stock Photo

You don't eat or drink a bowl of ramen, you commune with it.

The first sip turns you on, it's like the start of a novel that catches you, you don't stop until there's not a drop left.

Slurping is not a vulgarity, it is a resource.

It cools the broth and the noodles that are burning in the mouth.

It also aerates the aromas, a detonation of odors that explodes at the tip of the nose.

With these noodles, pair water and beer, refreshing drinks that do not overshadow the flavors.

Cold water works very well because it cleanses the palate between sips and soothes.

There is no bar that does not have a pitcher of water and glasses.

The same function does the light Japanese beer.

Although ramen is the city's signature dish, the biggest is the red pole star of its local brew, Sapporo.

It is the oldest beer in Japan.

It was founded in 1876 by Seibei Nakagawa,

a young man who learned to make it in Germany.

Upon his return, he opened a red brick brewery that is now the Beer Museum.

Without after-dinner and satiated one leaves the dining room, leaving a place free for the next diner.

Practical Guide

To know more about ramen

• Ramen!

  A cookbook in comic format, by Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan, published by Libros Cúpula, from the Planeta group.

• Chef's Table

  Netflix

  documentary .

  There is a chapter dedicated to Ivan Orkin, an American cook who has a ramen restaurant in New York, after being blessed in Tokyo.  

Japan National Tourist Office:

japan.travel.es 

How to go:

from Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Malaga and Alicante, via Helsinki, you can fly to Sapporo, twice a week, with Finnair, the airline with the most regular flights to Japan.

Other OneWorld group airlines such as Iberia, British Airways and Japan Airlines are associated in such a way that you can fly with any of them to the Japanese country in codeshare.

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