らー麺あけどや (Akedoya in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture)

0 Reviews

らー麺あけどや

Akedoya is a highly ranked miso ramen shop out on the border of Tokyo and Chiba. The hunt for great miso ramen is a hard one. Miso can be too funky or too salty. For many ramen hunters, it’s the easiest to find fault in. For this ramen hunter, Akedoya was a great bowl with one major fault.

Like most miso ramen shops (Hokkaido-style at least) there is a range of choices. Thick miso, spicy miso, soupless tantanmen, and shoyu ramen. And tsukemen. And a bunch of toppings. And rice bowls.

There are also limited bowls to try. Ichikawa Station is along a major commuter line, so this shop could easily be a weekly stop for regulars. Go for the thick miso bowl if it is your first time. Or maybe the spicy version.

I ate this one live on Twitch. A year later and I still have the same number of viewers. It’s a fun hobby, though.

My complaint with the miso here lies on top of the noodles.

Corn. I hate corn.

Corn as a topping is all well and good. Put it as an option for customers to choose. I won’t choose it, and I’ll probably enjoy the bowl. Having to work around each kernel, my lunch turns into more of a task than a meal. I really hate the stuff. Freshly shucked corn isn’t the worst thing on earth, but in Japan, 99.9% of corn is genetically modified junk from imported cans. It’s unhealthy, full of bad sugars, and probably bad for the environment. I also think it just tastes bad.

The soup itself is made from a blend of five Japanese miso pastes. It’s quite nice, and the tender chashu on top almost made me forget about the corn.

This is why you shouldn’t listen to so-called critics. A bowl that is probably a four or five-point feast becomes a lowly two in my mouth when I have to look at that corn. According to the expert critics at TRY (Tokyo Ramen of the Year) magazine this one was a big hit in 2019 and 2020, though they were left out of subsequent year’s miso rankings.

Still reading? Did you know that I released a ramen cookbook? It’s available wherever fine cookbooks are sold, aka Amazon. Can’t wait to see what recipes you come up with!

Click here!

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