My ramen knowledge has expanded a bit recently due to concerted efforts to indulge (ugh), but I’m still pretty ignorant about what makes each regional ramen unique. I DO associate Hokkaido ramen with miso (and as my boss says, Northern people like saltier food. At least he does.), and Misozen, as the name implies, offers it up in the basement of the Mitsubishi Trust building (think Dean & Deluca at street level).
You can get regular ramen, but you can also get light (saikyo) or dark (haccho) miso in it. It’s also likely to come with a bunch of bean sprouts and a healthy serving of pickled bamboo shoots. In my case, sliced pork also. Mmmmm…
Contrary to my theory of ramen, I don’t think there was any outstanding element here. The soup (haccho, Y750) was seriously dark and thick, and oddly, not as cloudy as you’d expect for a miso-based beverage. It was really salty and strong, but a bit flat. The noodles were probably the closest to a standout; firm, curly, thin, yellow. The pork was pretty good – top-half, maybe upper-quartile stuff, but you don’t need to make a visit for it. The bean sprouts and bamboo, meh, I can always take or leave ’em. And it comes with corn. Hokkaido ramen = corn. Don’t look for explanations, just learn it as the truth.
Thicker! Saltier!
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