煮干し中華専門店つじ製麺所 (Tsuji in Aomori)

0 Reviews

煮干し中華専門店つじ製麺所

Tsuji is another much-loved shop up in Aomori City, in the northernmost prefecture in Tohoku. It’s quite glorious up here in winter if you like a few meters of snow stacked up everywhere but the most well-traveled roads. Luckily, most ramen shops are along those roads, and nothing beats a steaming hot bowl of ramen. That’s why I got the chilled noodles tsukemen from Tsuji. Whole wheat noodles and a light niboshi dipping soup. Refreshing!

In Tokyo, the snow stays on the ground once or twice a year. I don’t know how people manage living like this for six months of the year. Beautiful though.

Tsuji gets extra points because their shop is inside a run-down department store. This means no waiting outside in line. Come on in and get warm, the hot ramen is moments away.

The menu is all over the place. There’s miso garlic ramen, small curry bowls, and a habanero niboshi ramen that I dare not try. The tsukesoba (つけそば) was recommended so that’s what I went for.

The full name of the shop is Tsuji Seimenjo (製麵所) meaning noodle factory. The use a high water content in their noodles for a particularly chewy texture. They are also quite proud of their niboshi broth and chashu pork.

My friend had the standard bowl. Nothing fancy. Classic style.

The tsukesoba was a pleasant surprise. The noodles had a soba thing going on. Quite often buckwheat soba noodles are cut with wheat flour to make them easier to work with. It’s usually an 80/20 split of buckwheat/wheat. The noodles here tasted like a 10/90 split, though it wasn’t buckwheat giving the earthy kick, but wholegrain flour.

It’s cozy here in the basement of this forgotten hotel department store. Larger cities in the north of Japan are often shuttered and quiet. I hope Tsuji sticks around for a while.

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