一心不乱 isshin furan: united colors in residence
by rameniac | 12 Mar 2008
While the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum is a destination worthy of any visit to Japan, what I love most about Canal City Hakata’s Raumen Stadium 2 is its emphasis on Kyushu ramen. In one word, that means tonkotsu — pork bone soup from the various prefectures comprising the southern island. As at Shin-Yokohama, the shops exist in friendly competition with one another. However, unlike the Ramen Museum, residency at Stadium 2 appears to be much more ephemeral; tenants rotate in and out with greater frequency depending on patronage and monthly customer voting. Some, like Kurume Taiho, go on to establish full-blown restaurants in Hakata proper. The less successful, I presume, return to their local operations.
Isshin Furan serves up Miyazaki-style ramen by way of Fukuoka; testament to its quality, the Stadium 2 outpost has held court for several years*. Their main shop is also in Fukuoka city, but a branch does exist in Miyazaki, ostensibly from which the owners draw their inspiration. To be completely honest, however, there’s enough variance from shop to shop that one would be hard pressed to distinguish the ramen at Isshin Furan specifically as “Miyazaki-style” without talking to the waitress du jour. Miyazaki ramen incorporates a light shoyu base for the soup (but so do some Hakata shops) and a thicker, softer noodle, although Isshin Furan’s were Hakata-style thin, if not thinner. Tsukemono are a popular accompaniment; I didn’t notice any.
What I did know is that the restaurant indeed serves a superior bowl, a “highly refined” tonkotsu ramen, much like Ippudo flaunts. The noodles are angel-hair thin and prescient and the soup, light but sweet. The toppipngs are impeccably composed, with a luscious amount of chashu and the tiniest sliver of nori bookmarking the silkscreened name on the bowl. Add a dollop of yuzu kosho and you’ll find yourself with a distinctive, spicy yuzu-inflected ramen. It’s all rather sublime.
As with Ippudo, Isshin Furan lists their ramen by color: kuro no koku “black” ramen, with black pepper and a delicious spot of spicy mentaiko dressing, shiro, or white, tonkotsu ramen which looks to be in the traditional no-frills mode, “red negi” ramen with an emphasis on scallions, and “gold negi shio,” which, as the name implies, isn’t a tonkotsu ramen at all, but rather a shio ramen with a “golden” half-boiled egg. Too much to consider? Just point to the handy fold-out brochure, which doubles as the restaurant’s business card.
*Isshin Furan has held court in Canal City for the better part of the last few years, when I visited in 2005, 2006, and as recently as three weeks ago. But Raumen Stadium 2 is a fast-changing enterprise, and four of the eight stadium shops will be swapped out as of March 22nd, rendering two of my upcoming reviews almost obsolete. Go figure. I say almost, however, as the shop will still maintain its honten, or main branch, in Fukuoka city. Local residents are certainly the luckiest ones, though visitors to Fukuoka or Miyazaki could do worse than to seek out Isshin Furan, wherever they’ve set up shop.
| light, sweet, and with a hint of shoyu flavor, ostensibly in the miyazaki style. coupled with the black pepper, the spicy mentaiko paste, and the yuzu kosho and it's a real distinctive winner. | 9 |
| isshin furan's noodles are angel hair thin with great, medium-firm texture. they're thinner than typical hakata strands even, and lend an air of refinement to the proceedings. | 10 |
| delicately composed toppings, fresh negi, and a generous portion of tender, flavorful chashu make the kuro no koku tonkotsu ramen come alive. it's all in the details, and the toppings here have been well thought out. | 9 |
| whenever i hit canal city's raumen stadium 2 i typically eat at 2 or 3 shops in one go. alas, this usually means i skip out on ordering any side dishes. if i lived in japan, things would be different. oh yes, they would. | NA |
| the decor is pleasant enough, if not entirely individualistic. there's an attempt at dressing the space up post-war style with wooden beams and decorations, but high turnover among the eight shops insures that only superficial modifications are ever made to the existing facilities. for a second there i thought i was writing a technical manual. sorry. | 3.5 |
| a great addition to the kyushu ramen diaspora. miyazaki ramen? it's hard to tell. but it's fine stuff, and isshin furan only reinforces my contention that fukuoka shops really do have the best ramen on earth. | 6 |
〒810-0041
hours: 11a - 2a daily
(the fukuoka honten address is given) | 28 |
When I was last at Ippudo in Kanagawa about 4 months ago, they had a special, SPECIAL ramen that cost twice as much as their 750 yen Akamaru bowl, but promised all sorts of local ingredients and a variety of flavors throughout the course of the meal (something like a ball of hardened tonkotsu broth which melts so that by the middle of the meal, there’s a new ingredient added to the soup, etc.)
Looked fantastic but I couldn’t bring myself to pay $14 for what is supposed to be a cheap fill. Sort of defeats the purpose in my book.