大砲ラーメン本店 (Kurume Taiho in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture)

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大砲ラーメン本店

Kurume Taiho is possible the most famous shop in Kurume, home of tonkotsu ramen. Founded in 1953 by Noboru Kazuki (香月昇氏) as a stall on the main road, they opened their main shop in 1967 and have since gone on to open branches around Kyushu. They still use the same kettle for soup, mixing new soup into the old in an ongoing yobimodoshi soup (呼び戻しスープ) technique.

The history of Kurume’s tonkotsu ramen is often said to start in 1945 at Nankyo Senryo (南京千両). Of course, very little of Japan’s wartime history, especially something as trivial as when a ramen shop made creamy pork soup in a small Kyushu town, can be said for certain. Luckily there are blogs like mine to regurgitate what other blogs have said on the topic. Or maybe it isn’t so lucky. I can’t say I was around Kurume in the 50s, but reading up a bit on the local food scene puts things in perspective. Many people saw ramen shops as a way to revitalize their economy. Old men put their all into running the shops, and 40 yen got you a bowl of their hard work. No one criticized or analyzed. If your ramen was good then you were doing a good job. Then here comes that white boy from Tokyo, the one who loves refined shoyu ramen made with the finest specialty chickens and sous vide Iberico pork (I swear I can taste the acorns) to cast judgment.

Of course, I’m joking, but this always happens when I visit Kyushu. I eat way too much tonkotsu ramen and the whole thing becomes a blur. I start misspelling tonkotsu. Are you interested in the tonkatsu ramen I had in Kurume?

The ramen at Taiho comes in two colors. Regular ramen and “old” ramen (昔ラーメン). The staff will most likely recommend the old-style.

Frothy and rich. I wonder what the first person said when they tried a bowl like this.

Oh to be a fly on the wall when some Tokyo businessman ventured away from Kanto to try this new creation in the world of soups. Tonkotsu ramen had a boom in Tokyo in the 80s. What were people doing for the 30 years before that?

There’s a lot going on in this bowl of ramen, with most of those things being fat. The soup is a heavy pork-bone liquid. It’s not a bowl to take lightly, but that can be said for most of these old-school Kyushu bowls.

Although my photos barely show them, the menma in this bowl is unique. Called shinachiku (シナチク), this is a crunchier, less refined version. Very tasty. There is a textural thing with this bowl. Crunch. The pork belly is fried crispy. The shinachiku has a bite. And the little homemade lard bites are some kind of fat-soaked crouton, also fried.

The normal ramen omits the crunchy fried lard bits and replaces fatty pork belly for leaner pork shoulder. The normal version is also a little bit smoother.

This was my first time visiting Kurume to my knowledge. It’s a nice little town. I spent the afternoon walking from one ramen shop to the next along the train tracks and Chikugo River. This river empties into the Ariake Sea which in turn empties into the East China Sea. Although trucks rule the road, I can imagine a bustling marine business half a century ago, fueled by 40 yen bowls of ramen noodles.

I’d spend more time in cool Kurume, but the human body can only handle so much creamy pork soup.

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