麺屋福丸

Duck ramen. Is this the latest trend in Japan? I’m seeing more and more shops popping up that either focus on a duck-based soup, or offer a once-a-week limited “duck day” to customers.

Fukumaru opened in June of 2017, and boast a duck soup using famous Iwate Prefecture fowl.

Other ingredients to consider are Tokyo craft soy sauce and a homemade duck oil.

The upper-left on the ticket machine is for the shoyu ramen. I love the use of duck oil. Many bowls of ramen in Japan use chicken oil, giving a golden sheen to the top of the soup, and adding a lot of chickeny umami. Duck oil is like chicken oil on steroids. It can be heavy if not done right. Fukumaru does it right.

Though the shoyu was great, the paitan was the one that blew me away. The same stock is cooked over a stronger heat, drawing more collagen out of the duck bones. The end product is a creamy duck broth that was unlike anything I had had before. Again, I’ll use the analogy; duck soup is like chicken soup on steroids.