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Tsukemen


Norio

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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)?

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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! :biggrin:

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!! :angry:

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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here is a site with lots of pictures of tsukemen:

http://www.geocities.co.jp/Foodpia/5358/ts...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.

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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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.calvadoshof.com/Shops/Restrants/tukemendaiou.html

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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.calvadoshof.com/Shops/Restrants/tukemendaiou.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

Jim Jones

London, England

Never teach a pig to sing. It only wastes your time and frustrates the pig.

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Click the following and a map appears:

http://village.infoweb.ne.jp/~fwnf6142/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.

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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?

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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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.

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You read it right! :biggrin:

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.... :blink:

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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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. :biggrin:

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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. :blink:

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

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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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?) :biggrin:

***

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

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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. :biggrin:

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.

My eGullet foodblog: Spring in Tokyo

My regular blog: Blue Lotus

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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.

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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!

My eGullet foodblog: Spring in Tokyo

My regular blog: Blue Lotus

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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...

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

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.... :blink:

i11480.jpg

i11481.jpg

( I added the egg and the cabbage)

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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  • 9 months later...

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!

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  • 2 weeks later...

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.

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  • 4 years later...

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!

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