地雷源

Not sure about this name. The Kanji characters mean earth, thunder, source. Possibly land mine source. Anyways, let’s stick with the English. This is (apparently) soul food.

This spot was dubbed Best Shoyu in the World by Keizo from GoRamen. That’s a crazy title, considering that he has slurped countless bowls of soy sauce rich ramen.

Inside the shop, some vintage soul food posters adorn the walls. Often, shops that do this sort of thing in Japan do so in poor taste. I’ve seen old timey black-face countless times in this country. But Jiraigen pulls it off as a really chill spot.

On Fridays you can try a special black ramen made with squid ink. Unfortunately, Friday is not a day for ramen, at least until my schedule changes.

The pots are steaming, and my order is up.

A solid shoyu, accentuated by the freezing cold February morning.

I’ll say it now, I disagree with Keizo on this one. It was good and all, but shortly after eating I felt a layer of chicken fat coating my taste buds. I’ve noticed this lately with a lot of shoyu, the heavy chicken fat flavor. I really really don’t go for it.