Kanagawa ramen originated in the yatai carts of Yokohama Chinatown, which is the largest Chinatown in Japan, during the last days of the Meiji era. It can be argued that ramen, certainly shoyu ramen, originated in Yokohama.
A clear soup with thin, orthodox noodles is the norm here and is considered to be the "basic, traditional" ramen style. During the 1970s, a few shops opened in Yokohama which changed the game and became very popular. Yoshimurakei, a family-run Yokohama ramen chain, popularized a thick shoyu-tonkotsu soup with thick al dente katamen noodles.In an unprecedented move, they gave away their family recipe to other ramen shops in the area to "create" a new definition for Yokohama ramen, with over 250 shops in the area now serving their particular brand of "Yoshimura-kei" style noodles.
One can hardly leave the region behind without a mention of the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum, which features exhibits on the history of ramen and instant noodles and gathers eight of Japan's top ramen shops into a food-court basement with a post-war theme, although the shops on offer inescapably lean in favor of shoyu ramen traditions found primarily in the Kanto region and the surrounding environs of Tokyo.
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