Shio Ramen

Hakodate, an early treaty port in southern Hokkaido, has a strong claim to one of Japan's earliest bowls of ramen. An 1884 advertisement in a Hakodate newspaper marketed 'Nankin soba' (Nanjing-style noodles) at a shop named Yowaken — arguably the earliest documented reference to a ramen-style noodle dish in Japan, though whether it was truly the country's first bowl is debated. The style grew out of clear, salt-seasoned Cantonese-style stocks brought by Chinese cooks in the port; salt suited the local seafood-rich palate and stayed the city's house flavor. Hakodate shio ramen is now counted, with Sapporo's miso and Asahikawa's shoyu, as one of Hokkaido's three great ramen.

A pale, almost translucent gold broth, clean and saline, scattered with thin straight noodles that hold a firm bite. The salt tare keeps the flavor delicate and lets the chicken-pork-kombu stock and any seafood notes come through clearly — there is nowhere for off-flavors to hide, which is why a good shio bowl tastes of nothing but clean stock. Roasted chashu is firmer and less fatty than the braised kind; the fish cake is mild, the scallion bright. The lightest of the four styles, it should taste restorative rather than rich.

Salt tare is the simplest of the ramen seasonings and therefore the most exposed. Because there is no soy or miso to mask anything, the broth must be genuinely clear and clean: it is cooked at a bare simmer (the chintan method) rather than a hard boil, so fat and protein are not churned into the liquid and the stock stays transparent. The salt sharpens perception of the broth's own glutamate and inosinate — the umami of kombu multiplied by that of chicken and pork — without adding flavor of its own. Boil the bones hard instead of simmering and the broth turns cloudy and the shio illusion of clarity is lost.