麺処いし川 (Ichikawa in Hinode, Tokyo)

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麺処いし川

Mendokoro Ishikawa serves a clean bowl of shoyu ramen using top-level konbu from Rebun Island in Hokkaido. This konbu is prized for its subtle umami most often found in the kaiseki kitchens of Kyoto. Is it too clean for ramen? Why not go with the cheaper, more-umami-having makombu? Heck, why even use kombu when MSG powder will do the trick? Valid questions.

I shouldn’t bury the lead. This ramen is excellent.

A few posts back, I went to the wrong Ishikawa. This is the right Ishikawa. My friend Bunpei spends his summers fishing for konbu in Rebun and he had told me of a ramen shop using his goods. This is that shop.

Shoyu, shio, tsukemen, masesoba. There are even regular limited bowls at this popular shop.

The shoyu ramen uses Kikkoggo (キッコーゴ) soy sauce from the local Kondo Jozo soy sauce brewer. This high-end soy sauce is a low-key secret ingredient at many ramen shops in the Kanto area. We even use it at the Tokyo RaJuku Ramen School.

Garlic, ginger, and apples make their way into the soup. It’s a well-rounded bowl that warrants the lineup you’ll find outside.

The limited bowls look great at Ishikawa. I wasn’t hungry enough to take down bowl number two, but they had a shoyu ramen made with shin shoga, the young ginger that only appears on menus once a year. Like the konbu from Rebun Island, you’ll probably only see this kind of ginger in higher-end Japanese restaurants, though your local izakaya might have some as well.

You can access Ishikawa via Akigawa Station, but the journey from central Tokyo is much shorter if you drive yourself. Like most ramen shops outside of Tokyo’s 23 main districts, you’ll find a few parking spots in front of the restaurant.

Looks like there is one more Ishikawa up in Akita Prefecture. Despite a low rating on the internet, it looks good. Next stop?

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