ラーメンイロドリ (Irodori in Gifu Prefecture)

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ラーメンイロドリ

Irodori serves one of the area’s most popular bowls of ramen. Their signature is a thick tori paitan made with four different kinds of specialty chickens. Chicken lovers should probably rent a car and drive out here. Thinking back over the ramen years, I’ve met a few people obsessed with tori paitan.

I wanted to try this bowl so bad that I got a cheap hotel for the night in the Gifu area. The truth is that when I travel by motorcycle I try and camp in the wilderness as much as possible. I use this custom Google map to find free campgrounds and free onsen hot springs to bathe in. I get no joy from the business hotel lifestyle.

Toyoko Inn, aka the business hotel lifestyle. My company uses them exclusively, so I have a lot of points on their reward card. Free nights for what it’s worth.

Ramen, a spicy soupless aesoba, tsukemen, and some limited bowls are on the menu. The upper-left button gets you the 特製 with all the toppings.

Irodori uses prized Tajima Dori (但馬鶏) for the soup. Tajima City is located north of Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture. The chickens are fed a diet containing herbs without any antibiotics.

Chicken from Akita, Niigata, and Yamagata prefectures round out the mix.

Noodles are made in-house with a blend of five different kinds of Hokkaido wheat. It’s also worth noting that the master here trained for over six years at Menya Hakushin, a shop I visited the day before. Both shops put a lot of care into their ramen and both shops have a very unique taste.

Looks like they did a collab in the past with my friend Hash Royal. He’s a musician who travels around Japan eating ramen non-stop. He’s probably the most knowledgeable of the ramen hunters when it comes to non-major-city shops. That mazesoba looks damn good.

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