Japanization

Ramen arrived in Japan with Chinese migrants in the late nineteenth century. The first restaurant to sell the dish, which at the time was called Shina Soba (Chinese soba) was Rairaiken in Tokyo, 1910. It was run by Ozaki Kan’ichi with thirteen Chinese cooks, who were all from the Yokohama Chinatown. The name Shina Soba was easy to remember because almost all Tokyo residents were familiar with soba noodles that had been sold on the streets since the Edo period.

Nonetheless, this dish became a national dish with the name we now know: rāmen. This name change occurred during the 1950s and 1960s when the word Shina gained a derogatory connotation because of its connection to Japanese imperialism. The name was first changed to Chūka Soba, where Chūka is the Chinese name for the People’s Republic. Finally, rāmen became the new name. This name was inspired by the instant version that was sold from 1958 onwards and had spread nationwide. Based on the Mandarin word 拉面 (lāmiàn) meaning pulled noodles.[Cf] [Cf] Later on we will take a look at the instant version as well. But if rāmen came from China, is it not just a Chinese dish being served in Japan?

Several factors contributed to rāmen becoming what it is today. Culinary historian Kosuge Keiko suggests that a big part of the Japanization happened when restaurants selling domestic soba also included Shina Soba on their menus. What also could have contributed is Japan invading Manchuria in 1931, which caused a lot of Chinese cooks to leave Japan. This led Japanese cooks to take over the cooking.

The big differences between rāmen and existing Japanese dishes are the broth and the noodles. Japanese cooks solely used seafood and seaweed for making broth, while the rāmen dish is based on meat broths, mostly pork and sometimes chicken. The Chinese-style noodles that are used in rāmen are a lot more elastic and chewier than the wheat noodles used in Japan (e.g. udon) This is due to the Chinese technique where alkali is added to the salty water that is used when kneading the dough. [Cf]

Seeing as there is a big difference in preparation, it is interesting to contrast the actual dish with its counterpart: the instant rāmen.