What's New

"This is the traditional taste of Japanese style food stall", I thought, when I first came across with the Ramen at Dragon. It reminded me a little bit of the ramen at Gifuya in Shinjuku many years ago. There is no cut nori, I know. I am talking about the soup. There are two main ingredients for the ramen soup. One is Ajinomoto and the other is Chinese chicken soup powder. Nowadays a lot of ramen restaurants use Chinese chicken soup powder against the tradition of Japanese ramen, which is not ramen but Japanese style tanmen in my opinion. In my definition, Ramen should be based on Ajinomoto. Shoyu ramen soup is simple. Ajinomoto, lard, dashi and soy source. What kind of Dashi, a class of soup and cooking stocks, is used depends on the tradition and routes of their ramen style. Whether or not lard is really made of pork reflects the quality of the ramen restaurant. - I would like to use the word "restaurant" rather than "shop" because it is sacred place for Japanese philosophically. And the restaurant offering the taste of food stall should be considered most sacred place. - Dragon looks mediocre. People working there are not enthusiastic unlike other service oriented big smile eating spots everywhere in Japan. They do not flatter. They just serve what it should be at the right price. Do not hesitate to ask questions to them. If someone asks, they answer.