東京味噌らーめん鶉

Craft miso is made all across Japan, with locales like Hokkaido and Nagano getting a lot of credit. But when I heard about a shop using Tokyo miso, I was intrigued. Miso from the big city? Preposterous!

Making it just minutes before their lunch shift ended, a proper kanpai was in order. I was having a bowl with one of my best friends, Keizo Shimamoto. You know, the guy who went to New York and crushed the entire casual foodie culture with his ramen burger.

This shop is connected to Shichisai and Kujira Shokudo, both known for being MSG free and having excellent homemade noodles.

Two ramen nerds trying something new. We live for this sort of thing.

Very unique. The miso was a red miso, a bit sweet, without much impact. The relatively light taste of the soup meant that any other strong flavors would take center-stage. The stronger flavor? Those little drops of oil were gobo, burdock root. Along with some crispy fried gobo on top, this was kind of a gobo overload, with the fried taste leaving a strong aftertaste on the tongue. No necessarily bad, but kind of a strange, earthy taste that lingered for about 20 minutes.