とら食堂 (Torashokudo in Shirakawa, Fukushima)

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とら食堂

Torashokudo is one of Japan’s most celebrated shops. Their Shirakawa-style noodles have been replicated at ramenyas around the country, some with a direct connection to the original shop and some without. Classic shoyu ramen with homemade noodles and just a tinge of niboshi.

You might be better off just visiting the Torashokudo branch in Matsudo outside of Tokyo. Or just search locally for a shop specializing in Shirakawa-style noodles (白河手打ち中華). It all depends how serious of a ramen hunter you are. What I’m getting at is that Shirakawa (the city) is a royal pain in the ass to get to.

But get to it we must. Statistically speaking, Shirakawa is a town with a population of around 60,000 and over 100 ramen shops (according to Tabelog, there are 132). Torashokudo is considered one of the original shops, spawning many other Tora-style (とら系) shops since they opened in 1973. I couldn’t find an exact number, but it is said that 70% of Shirakawa-style ramen around Japan is directly descended from Torashokudo.

Technically speaking, Tora-style means Shirakawa-style ramen with noodles made using a bamboo stick to knead the dough. There are older shops making Shirakawa-style ramen.

Simple ramen with an emphasis on the flavors of the ingredients. Five different kinds of local chicken make up the stock. They recommend the regular chukasoba for first time visitors, but I went with the wantanmen for some added dumplings.

The noodles in a bowl of Shirakawa-style ramen are one of the draws. Made in-house and hand-rolled using a big bamboo pole, even the most skilled noodle maker can only pump out around 50 servings an hour. Torashokudo serves 300 bowls a day. This means preparations for the day’s service begins around four or five in the morning.

Great bowl. Worthy of the praise it is given. The current master Kazuyuki Takei (竹井和之さん) is the second generation since his father Torajitsu Takei (竹井寅次さん). The father died at an early age of 53 and the son took over at age 28. He wasn’t confident with his ramen and spent five years working on it before accepting his first interview.

The gift packs might be a good gift to bring back with you, though I think you can buy them online with free delivery.

Shirakawa was along the Shinkansen bullet train tracks from Tokyo to Akita, our destination for the day. I had scheduled things down to the minute. As trains rarely stop at Shirakawa, the timing was of the essence. In the end, we made our train with seconds to spare, had ramen in Sendai, and made our hot spring hotel without a hitch.

I made a video of my Tohoku 2021 adventure. Check it out!

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