Noodle&Spice Curry 今日の1番

Up early and looking for a big breakfast? Kyonoichiban (Today's Best) is open from 6:30 in the morning with a break from 9:00 to the 10:00 lunch service. When I say a big breakfast I mean it! This shop serves both ramen and curry.

Niboshi ramen has been popular in Japan for over a decade, and very unpopular overseas. Sure, a few dried sardines thrown into the soup will enhance umami, but a few hundred means bitter, smoky, fishy flavors that the West tends to dislike. I always tell people to go to the iconic Nagi in Golden Gai and if you love it, pursue niboshi ramen to its fullest.

Looks like all of the usual suspects have been here before me! I wonder what they all ordered.

Today's niboshi (本日の煮干). There's a lot to go over here, but the gist is that they will display which dried seafood ingredients go into the ramen each day. The shop's name Kyonoichiban (今日の1番) refers to the best of the day. This means every day has the potential to be a different bowl. The normal niboshi ramen (煮干ソバ) and the thick style (濃厚煮干ソバ) both use different fish as well. Go for tsukemen or mazesoba if you want to be a rebel. Today's niboshi comes from Chiba and Aomori, with dried barracuda and flying fish thrown in for good measure. There's rice topped with garlic pork and a limited kake double (かけダブル) that I have no idea the meaning of.

I always forget to ask for the ramen without onion. I'm not a fan of raw onions, and they are a default topping when it comes to these rich niboshi bowls. I do like the aroma of onions, so they'll just get pushed to the side, away from the tasty seaweed (バラ海苔). This is the thick version; full of flavor and bitter as all hell. I love it.

Today's curry was sweet seafood curry. Not that sweet, but in Japanese sweet (甘) is often the opposite of spicy (辛). The same characters can also be used for wine when it comes to sweet vs dry. Either way, there is no option for a mini curry, so you'll be eating two full meals if you want the experience here. Good luck!

Check the day's specials on their official Twitter here.

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Noodle&Spice Curry 今日の1番 (Kyonoichiban in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture)

中華蕎麦きつね (Kitsune in Rokakoen, Tokyo)