Japan

Beautiful, delicious ramen

In Japan we stayed with Jess and Stu which was awesome because they already knew the good places to eat around the area they live in so we didn't have to risk going somewhere which was actually crap and eating bad food! We went to a lot of fun places and tried a bunch of great food but my absolute favourite was the ramen.

Ramen was never something I thought I would like, I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. A ramen place opened in Wellington and people were raving about it and lining up down the street to get in. Little did I know that it was amazing.

The place we went to in Japan was tiny, with about 3 booths and room for a few people to sit at the counter. By the door is what looks like a vending machine and you push a button to get a ticket which says which sort of ramen you want, and then pass it to one of the guys working there.

Of course everything is in Japanese so Jess told us which one to get, which was a ramen local to the area. I added extra vegetables to mine which was a mistake because I think I got about a quarter of the way through it before I was super full!

The ramen is a base of pork stock with a bunch of noodles in a bowl, topped with things like mung beans, cabbage, seaweed, egg and pork. I never liked pork when we ate meat so I wasn't expecting to like this but it was so good, salty and rich and delicious. They also had condiments on the table like chili flakes, finely chopped garlic, chili sauce, vinegar etc but I don't think it needed anything extra.

I would love to eat ramen again but since settling in the UK and going back to my normal life of vegetarianism I don't think it would be the same. I will keep a lookout for vegetarian ramen though in case it is good.

I wish I had some ramen right now, it is making me hungry just writing about it! If you live near a ramen shop I highly recommend it!