Ramen Jiro/Fujisawa Cityラーメン二郎/湘南藤沢

The southernmost Jiro on the map, about 20 minutes or so past Yokohama on the Tokaido Line (or the Shonan-Shinjuku line, if you are coming from the west side of the loop) in Fujisawa City. The second-to-last Jiro location on my list, having knocked off the relocated Takadanobaba one a few weeks ago. Fujisawa City is a good jumping-off point for visiting either Kamakura or Enoshima. Several trains and tram-like trains including the Enoden run between Fujisawa City and those locations, I recommend the Odakyu as that will get you closer to the bridge that connects Enoshima to the mainland. I had not been to Enoshima yet so I decided to make a day trip of it. The Shonan Fujisawa Jiro is not difficult to find, about 10 mins walk from the station. The place appears to be still under a bit of construction. It's the longest Jiro I have ever been in, with enough room for 10 people to stand against the wall waiting inside the store. The master will come out every so often and make sure people are not blocking the sidewalk, there are lots of bicycles speeding up and down, etc. The shop is very clean, with shelving for belongings in the back. Decent-size bowl overall, with linguine-sized custom noodles. The pork had a moderate amount of fat attached, about 1/3 was inedible. The let-down was the broth, that was the same milky mixed type like Omiya. with no chance to dodge the fat balls. One saving grace is that this shop has the widest amount of space in between seats, no cramming in for fat gaijins like me, no holding your arms in front of your chest for 30 minutes. Drink machine in front.

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Ippudo Premium Club

One of our intrepid team (not me) has reached what must certainly be one of the major pinnacles of achievement in the Tokyo ramen world - by virtue of his fine character and upstanding contributions to the community (again, obviously not me) he has been inducted into the Ippudo Premium Club. To wit, the items depicted above including the donburi (bowl), hashi (chopsticks), two or three packaged Ippudo ramen meals (which according to him are not the same as the plebian ones sold in supermarkets here, either the fresh ones in the refrigerated section or the dry bowl noodles), and various other items of miscellany and whimsy including a snazzy Ippudo Premium Member Card.

Matt Gross' NY Times Ramen Article Translated in COURRiER Magazine

Thanks to Ramen Adventures I see that Matt Gross' NY Times ramen article has been translated into Japanese and appears in the April 2010 issue of COURRiER Magazine.

Nagi/Shibuya凪/渋谷

  

This branch of Nagi's claim to fame is to have a thicker "noukou" tonkotsu soup. This was one of the places that Matt Gross went to during his recent trip and sure enough, a cutout of Matt's article as it appeared in the printed NY Times is posted on the wall, luckily right next to where I was sitting, you can see a picture of it above. This is a *crazy* busy place, with these poor people running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The floor can be slippery when it rains, one of the shop staff warned me about it and then promptly slipped on the floor himself. My reference base for this type of shop will be Santouka or Ippudo. I personally found the broth a bit less salty and flavorful than Ippudo, and perhaps a touch thicker but not incredibly so. But the pork was excellent, like roast pork with a flavorful grilled and caramelized skin. Kaedama was very popular and at least half the patrons were getting it. The gyoza are reputed to be very good here but I have not had them. About 1/2 hour wait at 12:30 on a weekday. Open past midnight every night but Sunday.

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Ramen Jiro/Takadanoabaラーメン二郎/高田馬場

 

Hadn't been to a Ramen Jiro in about 6 months, if you can believe it. The two remaining ones that I hadn't been to so far are far away, whole-day or most-of-the-day trips. I have to couple those with some R+R overnights for the wife and I. So when the Takadanobaba Ramen Jiro announced that it was relocating, and became a new location (sort of), I put that back on my local list. It's moved from Waseda Dori a bit north up to ShinMejiro Dori, roughly across from the Bamiyan. So went there for a long lunch on Friday, I had been up until midnight on conference calls the night before so a 1-1/2 hour lunch *occasionally* is not something I feel guilty about. Felt a bit weak from a spring chest cold but I knew that the Ramen Jiro magic would kill off whatever was lurking in my lungs. There were about 10 people on line at about 1:15 PM. The shop is laid out so that it's almost right on the sidewalk, with a very shallow counter and no shelf below. Cabinets up about for belongings just like the original shop. They have tsukemen but were sold out at lunch. Overall the buta ramen was extremely greasy, with the oil making up about 1/4 inch on the surface of the ramen. In these types of situations it is important to mix up the broth with the oil, so that when you pull noodles and veggies out, they are covered in a combination of the two, not just oil. Then when you are done you leave whatever broth was left in the bowl, don't even think about trying to drink it. The pork was not in neat slices but sort of crumbled and chopped up. Self-service water dispenser (very cold) and metal cups. No drink machine in front. Noodles were decent as was the overall volume. Good but the extreme oiliness makes it debatable whether it is a Recommended or not.

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