白河手打中華そば一番いちばん (Ichiban Ichiban in Machida, Tokyo)

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白河手打中華そば一番いちばん

I finally made it to the world-famous Ichiban Ichiban. I don’t know about world-famous, but this shop is on all the shortlists of the best ramen in the greater Tokyo area. Every magazine or website with a substantial ranking has this one up there. It’s a Shirakawa-style shoyu ramen with beautiful hand-pulled noodles. Classic ramen from Fukushima Prefecture.

That’s one beautiful bowl. Tender, fatty chashu front and center. Hand-pressed noodles poking out from underneath. The striation of brown soup and yellow chicken oil.

Even the bowl is beautiful. The amber soup is simple, based on chickens. It’s clean and drinkable, the perfect match for the noodles.

The noodles are the star of this bowl. Hokkaido wheat dough is kneaded with a bamboo pole. This serves to activate the gluten in the wheat. The texture becomes chewy and firm. Immediately before boiling the noodles are hand-pressed to flatten them a bit and add a bit more texture.

A must-hit shop, and one of the best bowls of the year for me. Double and triple-check their opening hours, though. I think this was my third time to come. I actually came for lunch on this day but they were closed. I waited around the Machida area for the next six hours to try this bowl. Worth it.

The name of the shops comes from a Chinese restaurant in Setagaya called Ichiban. Like many chefs who are passionate about their noodles, Kinhara-san (金原さん) trained in Chinese cuisine prior to opening his own ramen shop. He also took inspiration from famed Tora Shokudo in Shirakawa, Fukushima, an epic shop in the countryside of Japan that does, you guessed it, Shirakawa-style ramen.

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