旭川ラーメンさいじょう

My ramen adventures in Hokkaido, 2016, were starting to look like a comedy of errors. Shops I wanted to visit were closed, the weather was completely random, and bowls that I did manage to slurp weren’t all that great. Had I eaten at every good ramen shop in Hokkaido?

A few years back I was hitchhiking in this part of Japan, and an Asahikawa local said i should try ホルメン, ramen topped with horumon, animal innards. Not something I normally go for, but if it is a local ramen dish that a local said you gotta try, you gotta try.

It was also a chance to check out the Asahikawa Ramen Village, a collection of eight shops on the outskirts of town. The funny thing is, this place is very inconveniently located, and most of these places have their head shop within walking distance of Asahikawa Station.

You’ve got Aoba.

Ittetsu-an Matsuda.

Ishida.

Tenkin.

Baikoken.

Kobo Kato.

Saijo.

Santoka.

Well, if you like sweetened pig butt fried as a topping, you might enjoy Saijo. Me, I can’t stand the stuff. It looks like quite a few shops in the area do limited bowls of intestine-topped ramen. It is supposed to give guys stamina.

I’ll gladly throw up (no pun intended) a guest post by someone who can crush all eight of the participating shop’s horumen bowls. As for me, I’m out!