locally, this is acknowledged as the best instant saimin, which is what we call ramen in hawaii.

found out about this site via forwarded la times article.  thought i was the only ramen lover. 

there was a place here many years ago called “mr. ramen”.  the owner made both his own broth and noodles.  i used to eat breakfast there several times a week, until he closed shop for good.  the flavor of the broth was consistent as was the noodles.

my quest for the perfect ramen started then.  as we owned a specialty market at the time, i finally decided to see if i could develop the perfect serving of saimin to eat as well as sell.

several of my friends knew of my passion and they would give me noodles from different noodle shops.  one of these samples was made right here in town.  the owner made his own noodles and used a prepackaged concentrated liquid broth that was beef-shoyu based from japan.  so what we did was purchase the noodles and broth and added a whole dried scallop and kim chee that was also made locally.  this was a very popular seller.  later on, we added a deluxe version that had bean sprouts, watercress and chinese style roast pork added.  as all good things must come to an end, the mad cow problem stopped the importation of the broth from japan.

back to square one.  remembering the noodles that i got earlier, i contacted the factory that made the other noodle that i liked and found out that the only broth they had was dried.  all i had to do was find a similar broth that was liquid and shoyu based.  after much phone calls, i finally found a chicken based broth was was made by the same factory as the beef based one.  we again had our saimin again.  i’ve been eating it almost every morning for breakfast for over 7 years....maybe it’s been over 10 years!

in my limited travels, mostly here in the state and the west coast and las vegas, i have yet to find an outstanding bowl of ramen in a restaurant.  usually, my main complaint is that the noodles are overcooked.  this is even true for the much respected saimin specialty shops in hawaii.

i will definitely visit santouka at mistuwa’s when i visit la this summer.

thank for the illuminating story! i’m guessing you’re in hilo? apparently, there’s an offshoot of taishoken (the famous shop in tokyo which invented morisoba dipping noodles) in honolulu. i’m definitely curious as to how it is.

there’s also tenka-ippin, a pretty famous kyoto ramen chain, at one end of the waikiki strip. heady stuff the one time i ate there, with a super thick soup made with chicken bones! have you had either of these two?

shame about the mad cow. i heard that’s why tengu beef jerky is no more ; ;