Hachiouji Ramen (Tokyo Metropolis)
What is Hachioji(八王子ラーメン) Ramen?
This is a local ramen in Hachioji City, Tokyo. It is characterized by the soup made with a strong soy sauce sauce, topped with chashu pork and menma bomboo shoots, and finely chopped onions. Another distinctive feature is that fat (oil, flavored oil, lard) floats on the surface of the soup.
The keyword is “chopped onion”
Although it is completely “local spot ramen” rather than local ramen, there are quite a few of them. The original name is Hatsufuji(初富士), and because it was located in Koyasu-cho, Hachioji City when it was founded, some locals sometimes refer to it as Koyasu-kei(子安系). From here, “Deura(でうら)” becomes independent. Including the most well-known “Minmin Ramen(みんみんラーメン)”, there are many such as “Tantan(タンタン)”, “Hirotomi(弘富)”, “Tomoe(トモエ)”, “Taketomiya(武富屋)”, “Kyoka(杏華)”, “Mikou(味幸)”, “Takemaru(武丸)”, “Ichimen(一麵)”, “Ichiyo Raifuku(一陽来福)”, “Ogawaya(おがわ屋)”, “Inui(いぬい)” and “Minmin Toyota (珉珉 豊田)”. As far as I know, the easternmost Hachioji ramen shop is “Marukou(丸幸)” in Musashisakai (however, in November 2001, Tomoe(巴), a branch of Hachioji ramen, opened in Utsunomiya).
The most distinctive feature is the chopped onion as an ingredient. Whether or not this is used can be said to be the deciding factor in the Hachioji lineage. However, the ingredients for the soup vary from shop to shop, and the soup is flavored with soy sauce made from pork bones, vegetables, mackerel flakes, bonito flakes, kelp, etc. It is unusual for the same strain to be so different. In other words, these are linked by the keyword “chopped onion.”
lard is floating in the soup. Noodles are medium thick noodles that are slightly curly. Another major feature, although unrelated to ramen, is that many Hachioji-style shops display several calendars (10 or more, often 20 or more) inside their shops.
The soy sauce-based sauce (kaeshi), chopped onions, and the fat (lard) that coats the surface of the ramen. This is Hachioji ramen, but why did they use chopped onions?
The owner of Hatsufuji(初富士), the original Hachioji Ramen shop founded in 1959, got the idea from eating ramen topped with chopped onions during a trip to Hokkaido. At the shop in Hokkaido, the spiciness of chopped onions remained, and he wondered if there was a way to get rid of this. Therefore, he devised a method to bring out the sweetness of onions by combining them with fat, while retaining the onion’s texture while suppressing the spiciness. A local Hachioji noodle making factory (Owariya Takii Seimenjo 尾張屋滝井製麺所) was created the noodles to match the soup.
Then it had started to sell soy sauce ramen with chopped onions at Hatsufuji.
This was the beginning of Hachioji ramen, and later the style of ramen with chopped onions became popular in Hachioji, forming a local ramen.
Hachimenkai(八麺会) is an organization that organizes Hachioji ramen.
Please refer to this page for maps and the latest information.
