小豆島ラーメン HISHIO

My travels take me all over Japan, and when I heard that a good friend had moved to Shodoshima, a small island between Okayama and Kagawa in the Seto Inland Sea, I made plans to visit. Shodoshima is famous for their traditional shoyu brewers, and many top shops in Tokyo use craft soy sauce from this remote part of the country.

Hishio (醤), which is one way to pronounce the sho in shoyu, is the go-to ramen shop on the island. They use as much local goods as possible, taking amazing Seto dried sardines and matching that with the deep shoyu that you expect.

Coupled with veranda with a sea-side view (come for lunch for the view), and you have a perfect spot to break a 10 day ramen dry spell that I was on.

Fantastic. The soup is thick and intense, and resembles Wakayama ramen in a sense. A crazy shoyu impact, as expected.

The hishio set comes with a tasty rice bowl on the side.

Another hit with this shop is the free 替え玉 policy. You want another serving of noodle? Eat as many as you like.

Though I found that the soup didn’t retain the initial flavor with the kaedama.

Shodoshima (小豆島), and the neighboring islands of Teshima (豊島) and Naoshima (直島), should be on your list of places to visit if you have some time. Beautiful views, good food, and a slower pace of life.