History of Ramen and is it Halal?

Ramen, popularize by anime Naruto is something you should try when traveling in Japan. Sure you can make it at home but nothing beat the feeling of eating hot ramen in it's origin country, Japan. Wait.. is ramen really from Japan? The noodle seems to looks like Chinese noodle, right?

Ramen with naruto as topping

So to find this out, we did some research and according to Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum, ramen did really come from China. They were brought when Yokohama port is opened to the world in 1859 during Meiji period. During post-war, the settlements of immigrant lead to the formation of China towns and the lines of Chinese restaurants at the street risen the popularity of Chinese noodle.

Ramen Museum at Yokohama (Photo by Lucius Kwok)

So what's the different between Japanese ramen and Chinese noodles? Technically it is not much different except that the soup or dashi used in the ramen is specifically made for ramen. The soup for chinese noodle is used in several other soup based Chinese dishes. The soup is actually the key factor of ramen and when you see Japanese Bangumi (TV show), it is always the thing they talked about when commenting the ramen.

The soup is generally comprised of soy sause, miso and animal based broth which is made by simmering pork or chicken bone. And for the toppings, typically they will put chashu (seasoned, roast pork), menma (seasoned bamboo shoots), green onion, soft-simmered egg, and nori (seaweed).

Learn more about pork here

With so many animal and pork based ingredients, how are we supposed to eat ramen? Few years back it is almost impossible to find ramen in Japan that is halal to consume. But with the increasing of Muslim tourisms, there are ramen shop in big cities in Japan than serve only halal ramen. To make it halal, first, pork based meat and ingredients is not used at all. For the broth, chicken, fish and vegetables are used. There are already halal certified product like miso and soy sauce in Japan market now so they will use that as the soup seasoning.

If you are planning to go Tokyo and want to try real Japanese ramen, we recommend going to Honolu Ramen in Ebisu. It's halal and authentic Japanese ramen shop. Beside ramen, they also serve gyoza (dumpling) and karaage (friend chicken). Many Halal Navi users has been there, check out their reviews!

More info and photo about Honolu Ramen Ebisu

** Halal Navi is offering coupon for Honolu Ramen Ebisu. Limited time only! **