New Years 2021 Ramen at Nagi Day One

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ラーメン凪

The dudes from Nagi, one of Japan’s (and becoming the earth’s) most celebrated shops, do a three-day limited ramen run at the beginning of each year. I try and make it all three days, hangover permitting.

I missed Ikuta-san’s bowl on the first of the month in 2021, but managed to make it to Natsu’s on the second. Nagasaki ingredients in a classic Nagi-style niboshi ramen.

Mr. Natsu himself. In 2008, when I first discovered my love of ramen I became a weekly regular at the Nagi in Shibuya. Natsu was behind the counter and we would chat in that local-style spot over beers, snacks, and random ramen. It’s possibly the origin story of my ramen adventures, feeling so at home and happy at a little ramen shop.

This year’s ramen was a fun one.

A giant slab of nori seaweed. What treasures could be beneath?

Under the nori seaweed was a warming bowl of niboshi ramen. This bowl was advertised as 煮干入れすぎるラーメン, ramen with too much niboshi. It wasn’t as crazy as some of the so-called cement styles, where the soup turns into a grey sludge of fishy bitterness, but it still had an intense kick of ocean umami.

Unfortunately, in 2022 they didn’t do their New Years’ ramen run due to a cautious country in the midst of a global pandemic. See you in 2023?

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