Ramen

Wheat noodles made with alkaline water, served in a hot broth that has been built over hours or days, seasoned with a tare of soy, salt or miso and finished with slices of pork, a soft egg, spring onion and nori: ramen is Japan's everyday noodle soup and the most argued-over bowl in the country. It arrived from China in the late nineteenth century as shina soba, became a cheap post-war meal built on American wheat, and split into regional styles that still define the map: Sapporo's miso ramen with butter and corn, Hakata's tonkotsu with thin straight noodles in milky pork-bone broth, Tokyo's shoyu with a clear chicken and dashi base, Kitakata's thick wavy noodles, and dozens more. The instant version invented in 1958 is the same name and a different food. A ramen shop usually makes one style and is judged on that style alone.