[Norio]

In preparation for my upcoming trip, I bought a little Hiroshima guidebook. It mentions something called tsukemen, which is apparently something like ramen (without the soup) with a spicy sauce on the side. However, I don't see any mention of how you're supposed to eat it. I'm guessing you dip the noodles in the sauce (vs. pouring the sauce on top)?

[torakris]

You've figured it out!
The sauce is either in a cup like bowl or a small saucer like bowl and the ones I have eaten have had a sauce a little bit thicker than a typical tsuke-jiru that you will eat with other noodles like soba or udon.
You dip the noodles into the sauce and then slurp the noodles very, very carefully!

I love this dish but rarely get to eat it, once I bought a supermarket variety that you cook the noodles yourself pour the packaged sauce into a bowl and eat with the seasoned boiled egg that comes with it , it was awful!!

[torakris]

here is a site with lots of pictures of tsukemen:

http://www.geocities...n/tsukemen.html

Some of them are quite different from the varieties I have eaten, some have a very soupy like sauce and some have the sauce served in huge bowls the size of ramen bowls. Most of the tsukemen I have eaten has been cold (in my area it is a dish that reamen shops often dish up in the summer) but the one I made at home was a hot version. That site seems to have both.

[Hiroyuki]

When I lived in Tokyo, I was a fan of Tsukemen Daioh つけ麺大王. It's a franchise chain. I used to go to the one located in Setagaya 世田谷 ward, but it seems to have been closed down. I have found one in Oosaki 大崎 in Shinagawa ward.
http://www.calvadosh...kemendaiou.html

[jrufusj]

Hiroyuki, on May 24 2004, 07:26 PM, said:

When I lived in Tokyo, I was a fan of Tsukemen Daioh つけ麺大王. It's a franchise chain. I used to go to the one located in Setagaya 世田谷 ward, but it seems to have been closed down. I have found one in Oosaki 大崎 in Shinagawa ward.
http://www.calvadosh...kemendaiou.html

Hiroyuki:

Thanks for the tip. Where in Osaki? I live in Kami Osaki (上大崎) 2-chome, so an Osaki shop is potentially close enough to hit for Saturday lunch.

Jim

[Hiroyuki]

Click the following and a map appears:

http://village.infow...6142/oosaki.htm

You'll see the words ラーメン屋（つけ麺大王). It seems to be very close (just in front of??) the West exist of Oosaki Station. (Sorry, I've never been to that shop.)

Caution: According to several websites, some people have a low opinion of that particular shop.

There seems to be one in Higashi-Gotanda 東五反田 and another in Nish-Gotanda 西五反田 too.

[torakris]

So does anyone know how you would eat the tsukemen in those pictures that have the very large bowls of soup?
Just dip it like you would do from the smaller bowls?
I assume you drink the soup afterwards?

[Hiroyuki]

torakris, on May 24 2004, 02:54 PM, said:

So does anyone know how you would eat the tsukemen in those pictures that have the very large bowls of soup?
Just dip it like you would do from the smaller bowls?
I assume you drink the soup afterwards?

I'm not sure whether I have interpreted your post right.

You just pick up some noodles from the noodle bowl with your chopsticks and then dip them in the soup bowl and eat them. Just repeat the steps. And of course, you drink the soup!! That's the whole point!!

I used to go to the shop at Fukasawa 深沢 in Setagaya ward, and I still remember how good the soup was.

[torakris]

You read it right!
Sorry, I have only had tsukemen "sauce" served in small bowls and there was never anything to drink at the end and normally it was so strong tasting that it wasn't really just drinkable....

[Hiroyuki]

It's not your fault, torakris. Tsukemen Daioh is not an upscale restraurant, as you can easily see. Tsukemen Daioh, Yoshinoya, Sukiya, etc., etc., ... all those shops would be the last shops you women would like to go to.

[torakris]

I think I am figuring this out!

At this website:

http://www.jfb-inc.jp/karamenmise.htm

they mention that while tsukemen in Tokyo tends to be cold noodles with hot broth, the Hiroshima style tsukemen is cold noodles and cold broth.
The hot broth ones I am assuming then are the Tokyo style and the thicker more sauce like ones are Hiroshima style, these are the ones I am more familiar with for some reason.

I think it s the Hiroshima style ones that pop up here in the summer especially on lunch menus geared towards women , I have to admit that I have only been in 3 ramen shops in 14 years in Japan! and Yoshinoya once!

[Hiroyuki]

You did it. So, there are actually at least two versions. Nice to know that. (Should I be ashamed of not knowing such a simple thing?)

***
Who took you to Yoshinoya? As a man, I just could'nt do that!

[smallworld]

Hiroyuki, on May 24 2004, 04:20 PM, said:

It's not your fault, torakris. Tsukemen Daioh is not an upscale restraurant, as you can easily see. Tsukemen Daioh, Yoshinoya, Sukiya, etc., etc., ... all those shops would be the last shops you women would like to go to.

Quote

Who took you to Yoshinoya?  As a man, I just could'nt do that!

What are you talking about? Plenty of women eat at ramen shops or Yoshinoya, and plenty more would like to if they could get over their embarassment. Seriously, I've eaten more ramen, gyudon, tachigui soba and other Japanese style fast-food with my Japanese girlfriends than I have with my husband (and he loves that kind of stuff!). They are always happy to eat it and often remark that they wish they could go alone but would just die from the embarassment. So we go in pairs or in a group- strength in numbers!

I think the idea that women should eat "women's food"(French or Italian, the fancier, trendier and more expensive the better) and men should eat "men's food" (yakinuku, gyudon, ramen etc- greasy, fast and cheap) is ridiculous. It reinforces harmful stereotypes and prevents people from truly appreciating food. And it gives young women just one more expense, on top of all the expenses involved (like expensive designer bags, a new wardrobe each season etc.) in 'proving' that they are successful and feminine.

So Hiroyuki, grab your wife and take her out to Yoshinoya! She'll probably thank you for it.

[Hiroyuki]

You know, in that case, things have changed. To be more precise, women have changed.

Grab my wife? No way. She knows how Yoshinoya takeout gyudon tastes like, but she is not interested.

[smallworld]

Hiroyuki, on May 24 2004, 07:51 PM, said:

You know, in that case, things have changed. To be more precise, women have changed.

Grab my wife? No way. She knows how Yoshinoya takeout gyudon tastes like, but she is not interested.

Does she? Bet she hasn't been there since they stopped using beef. So she's missing out on buta-don, oyako-don, ikura-don, and curry-don

And take-out is totally different from eating there! You don't get soup with take-out, or pickles, or a raw egg. I'm telling you, she doens't know what she's missing!

[Hiroyuki]

OK, if you insist, I'll give her your message. I'm interested in what she has to say about it.

[Hiroyuki]

Just the same old reply... She says she's just not interested. She says she prefers fish. She is a native of this rural town and, as a child, ate lots of vegetables and some fish, but scarcely any meat. Maybe you can't imagine...

[skchai]

I just posted a review of the Honolulu branch of Taishoken@Higashi-Ikebukuro in the Hawaii Forum. Kazuo Yamagishi, owner of Taishoken@Higashi-Ikebukuro, is credited with inventing (Kantou) tsukemen in 1961.

[Hiroyuki]

Thanks, skchai.

Here is a site that shows some pictures of Taishoken and Kazuo Yamagishi 山岸一雄:
http://www.geocities...shoukenike.html
(You can see Yamagishi in the top two photos.)

[torakris]

not too long ago I picked up a pack of instant tsukemen and gave it a try. While it wasn't bad, I doubt I will be buying it again....




( I added the egg and the cabbage)

[torakris]

My first tsukemen of the season

This was another spicy one and was really good.

[Pumpkin Lover]

I had tsukemen last week at Menchanko Tei, one of the more popular ramen restaurants in New York. I ordered my noodles with spicy miso broth, and like Kristen was saying upthread, the broth was more like a thick sauce. I was told either to pour it over my noodles or dip them; when I had the rest of the dish packed up as I was leaving, the restaurant dumped the broth over the remaining noodles. Is it common to pour the broth over the noodles?

Also, is there a recipe I could try for making that kind of thick broth? It was really nice!

[lambretta76]

While in Tokyo, or - to be more precise - Nakano, I had the tsukemen at Taishoken (大勝軒), as recommended by Hiroyuki. According to him, "Taishoken at Nakano is where Yamagishi was trained and invented tsukemen."

It was the first, and only tsukemen I've ever had, but it was quite tasty. I got the vegetable one, which had quite a healthy serving of pork in it, but many more vegetables than my friend, who ordered the pork one. Great broth, which was replenished halfway through the meal. I think it was 600 yen, if I'm not mistaken.

Cool little restaurant about a five minute walk south of Nakano Station.

[Chris Amirault]

Looks like I'll be in Nakano for a while this coming June. Is Taishoken still open and good?

[Hiroyuki]

Chris Amirault, on 30 November 2009 - 04:45 AM, said:

Looks like I'll be in Nakano for a while this coming June. Is Taishoken still open and good?

I'm not 100% sure but I think it is open.
Official website of Nakano Taishoken

According to this site,
Address: 3-33-13 Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo
Phone No.: 03-3384-9234
Open 10:30 to 21:00
Closed on Wednesday
No. of seats: 11
Smonking: Not allowed
Nearest station: Nakano Station on JR Chuo Line
Parking log: None

Here is a siteof someone who visited it in mid-November 2005 to have tsukemn for 480 yen and again in early March 2006 to have ramen for 480 yen.

I hope you have a wonderful dip and sip!

[Hiroyuki]

According to Nakano Sogo Ranking (Nakano Overall Ranking), Nakano Taishoken takes 88th place in 100 restaurants.
Two people complain that their soup is lukewarm. One person says that because of all other ramen shops that serve good tsukemen, Nakano Taishoken has lost their raison d'etre.

[Chris Amirault]

Thanks, Hiroyuki. Where might one find better tsukemen in/around Nakano?

[torakris]

I use tabeblog (the site Hiroyuki posted from) all the time and am rarely disappointed. Hiroyuki's link ranked it it 88th out of 100, but keep in mind that that is all of the types of restaurants in the area.
If you do a search of Nakano and tsukemen, you get these results. In the overall ranking it is 7th out of 15. The overall ranking is based on the number of "stars". There is also a popular ranking which is based on the number of comments people have made, I don't usually pay attention to this as much but FYI Taishoken is #2 with 30 comments.
One thing that I really like about tabelog is the CP (cost performance)numbers and Taishoken has one of the highest, meaning it may be one of the best for the money.

When using this site I like to look for a good combination of a high score combined with a minimum of 10 comments preferably more. With those criteria Aobalooks to be good, it is #4 in the overall ranking and has the highest number of comments at 133.

Just one note when looking at the site, compared to English ranking sites (ie tripadvisor, etc) the Japanese tend to be very stingy with 5 stars and you will rarely see someone ranking a restaurant as a 5.

[Hiroyuki]

Supposing that Chris really wants to have tsukemen in and around the Nakano area and that he has no particular preferences, I think I will recommmend Sawagami, which is at the top of the list that Kristin linked to, which serves tonkotsu (pork bone)/gyokai (seafood) tsukemen.
Reason: They make noodles themselves and allow you to select the amount of noodles from 200, 300, 400, and 500 g, as described here.

If Chris prefers other types of tsukemen (soy sauce, miso, super hot, curry, etc.), then I think I can recommend other ramen shops in and around Nakano.

[Chris Amirault]

I'm likely to be staying in Nakano for more than a week, and so I'd be eager to hear any and all recommendations. I'm also new to tsukemen, so opine away about what I should or shouldn't do while in Tokyo. Thanks!