In many of my blogs, I've sort of assumed one has a background understanding of ramen and it's many variations. However, since I didn't want to just talk about my repeat visit to Stamina Ramen Gamusha and Abutora without good reason, I wanted to add an introduction on just how vast ramen can be.
When asking 'what type of ramen do you like,' there is a bit of ambiguity in what 'type' means. Sometimes, people are referring to the type of broth used. It could be a chicken based, pork bone based (豚骨 or tonkotsu), seafood dominant broths, or maybe combinations of the aforementioned types. Additionally, one could ask whether a broth is lighter (あっさり) or heavy (コッテリ).
You can talk about the types of seasonings used in ramen, such as shoyu, miso, or shio (salt) when discussing ramen varieties. While usually not discussed, the type of oil (fat vs. oil) could also be considered due to the aroma they provide. Lastly, toppings and noodle types can also be considered (ex. cheese ramen). The reason for this specific list of preparations is due to the fact that these are the fundamental components of canonical ramen (broth, oil, seasoning, noodles, topping).
A newer type of classification that should be talked about is in the preparation of the ramen. While ramen proper is thought of a broth/soup with some type of noodles and toppings, many Japanese ramen chefs have taken their own spin, ushering new preparation styles.
One that I've discussed about before is tsukemen (つけ麺), or dipping ramen noodles. In this preparation, shown in my blogs about Katsuryu, a concentrated broth is served with thick noodles so the flavor of the broth can pair well with the thicker intense concentrated broth.
From Abutora, one of the variations they is called abura-soba, or oil ramen noodles. The main idea here is the only component that is subtracted from a typical 'traditional' bowl of ramen is the broth, where the taré/seasoning and oil are thinned a bit but served in larger proportion to season a dish quite well.
A similar variation to abura-soba (which is also served in Abutora) is maze-soba or mixing noodles. Although basically the same dish with a different name, the main distinction I've noticed here at Abutora is how aggressive the seasoning might be. Here, this tantan mazesoba has soboro (ground pork), pepper, sichuan peppercorns, peppers, blanched bok choy, sauteed (maybe pickeld?) bok choy, green onions (ねぎ), taré, and an aromatic oil. This felt less focused on the oil component of the ramen but still felt very similar to the previous dish I had at Abutora. The slight heat and numbing sensation from the tan tan mazesoba was quite enjoyable while the incredibly well seasoned soboro paired quite well with the taré and the thick chewy noodles. I felt that the bok choy was there since dandan noodles typically has bok choy but it does provide a bit of repreieve from the intense flavors. The green onions also provide a nice vegetable bite that enhances the dish quite well. Additional toppings of garlic, ramen oil (ラー油), and kewpie mayo add enough variations in the dish where it's quite nice. I think I might enjoy this a bit more than the abura-soba I got previously but they're definitely very comparable.
Moving on, another ramen prepration is hayashi ramen, or cold ramen. Some hayashi ramen have a cold broth with thin noodles that is supposed to be refreshing on a hot summer day. However, at Stamina Ramen Gamusha, they have their own twist on hayashi ramen. Previously, I had mentioned stamina ramen from Ibaraki is a special regional ramen where a shoyu ramen is made with liver and other 'stamina inducing veggies' and topped with a shoyu ankake sauce. However, Gamusha provides the hayashi ramen option where the broth is removed but the ankake is increased, as depicted below.
I will say that the liver was slightly overcooked this time which was a bit unfortunate. However, I have come to realize that the dichotomy of the ankake and the shoyu ramen broth was critical in my enjoyment of the stamina ramen. In other words, this hayashi ramen with just tons of ankakae sauce became quite dull since there was nothing much to work off of. The flavors overall is still quite nice but I did really miss the broth.
To summarize this blog, I've hopefully tried to describe why asking about the 'types of ramen' is difficult, due to the fact that seasonings, broth types, flavor intensity, and preparation are all important labels in describing ramen. This clearly isn't a comprehensive list but hopefully is enough to understand a bunch of buzzwords that surround many ramen restaurants. Best of luck!
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