永盛楼

Beautiful. Just look at that bowl!

Actually, I wanted to go to highly-rated Kanro for lunch, but it turns out that the famous shop, located in the middle of Nagasaki’s red light district, is only open at night.

Eiseiro was the next on the list. If you get lost (as I did), as any local shop owner. They all know where this one is. I asked someone who sells tortoise shell art.

Now this is what I am talking about! The soup: a simple clear broth. The noodles: hearty, but nothing too special. The toppings: crisp and colorful.

This bowl simply speaks for itself. If you need more convincing, I’ll be glad to help. Somewhere in the mix of bright orange, pink, and green was a half cooked quail egg and a ginger-tinted chicken meatball. The octopus, squid, and fried pork were all lightly seasoned, a perfect match for those vegetables.

The saraudon was equally great. Saraudon is, 100% of the time, available at champon shops.Similar toppings over crispy fried noodles. While champon is kind of a ramen with Chinese flavors, saraudon is all Chinese.