赤のれん aka noren: red flagged flavor
For a certain breed of tourist, the most rewarding sort of trip abroad is, like free jazz, an exercise in improvisation. True, planning ahead is typically wiser, and though booking a hotel in advance is plain common sense, there exists an innately primal thrill in stepping off a train in a town with absolutely no guarantee of shelter for the night. My last visit to Fukuoka ended thusly, and on a night when all the hotels were full and my baggage resided in a bus station locker, I simply slept (or rather, didn’t sleep) in a public park in the shadow of Tenjin’s monolithic department stores. At least I got some shots out of it.
Two weeks ago, I arrived in Fukuoka in much the same manner; luggage in tow, I spent a good morning wandering around town in search of a place to stay. Apparently no one in Japan sleeps at home anymore, as the numerous hotels in the area had already begun to fill up for the weekend, yet again. Thankfully I managed to secure a room, but not before I’d triangulated a handful of ramen shops on my designated hit list for the next few days. Providence works in mysterious ways.
Aka Noren is not the greatest noodle shop within luggage-tugging distance of the Tenjin Chikagai subway underground, but it is a noteable part of Hakata’s ramen heritage, as it apparently originated the local style some sixty years earlier. The validity of this is likely disputable; ramen in Kyushu has been around for considerably longer than that, and if guys were pushing carts around Kurume a decade earlier and mere miles to the south, I’m inclined to have my doubts.
That said, Aka Noren, or “the red curtain,” has been raising its entrance flag for over half a century, and its take on Hakata-style tonkotsu is decidedly old school. The soup, boiled for fourteen hours, is rich, and glutinous, with a consistency (and oddly enough, taste) befitting the “supreme” broth used in high-end Cantonese shark fin soup recipes. Rust-like in appearance, shoyu is clearly evident in the soup base; though this is not your typical Hakata ramen, it may well stand as a mirror into the way things were during the early, post-war ramen-slurping era.
It’s good stuff, if not exactly the overwhelming transcendent experience I sought for my first bowl of ramen in Japan in slightly over a year. The noodles themselves were disorienting; thin but flattened, chewy and firm but yellowish in color, they hewed closer to a midget strain of al dente linguine than to the familar white threads of contemporary hakata-men. Once handmade, the shop takes a certain pride in sourcing a proprietary local noodle that few ramen shops apparently use. They weren’t bad, they just weren’t what I was expecting.
The standard-issue toppings were something of a welcome relief. Fatty, flavorful chashu (small in the Hakata-style), delicately chopped green onions, and shinachiku bamboo shoots more commonly found in shoyu ramen but acceptable in this neo-classical context. If you find yourself a bit uncomfortable at Aka Noren, you can always customize your ramen and make a shade more contemporary Hakata - just throw in the signature red ginger and the obligatory dollop of garlic paste, which admirably punches up a decent bowl from the apparent shop that started it all.
I’m glad I’d settled on a hotel mere blocks away, even if it took an entire morning’s worth of effort to secure the room. In Fukuoka for a weekend, a hotel in Hakata Tenjin is an imperative, like living next to water. Too far out and I would have started to feel anxious and isolated. But then again,that’s probably just me.
| rust-brown, glutinous, and almost jelly-like in texture and consistency, aka noren's shoyu-tonkotsu soup is an old-school original, reminiscent of superior shark fin soup. it's not quite the contemporary hakata style, but it's not at all bad. | 8 |
| thin, flat, firm, and yellow, aka noren's proprietary noodles are eerily reminscent of miniature al dente linguine. this is not your daddy's hakata ramen. actually, maybe that's exactly what it is. | 7 |
| hakata-style toppings are typically sparing and full-flavored. aka noren's are no exception. | 8 |
| not today. i'm just getting started! | NA |
| a typical shop in a well-trod part of town, lit up bright and utilitarian with red flags, "aka noren" as trim. step outside, and you're in the hub of fukuoka's noodle and entertainment quarter. i'd say it's a decent vibe, or maybe i just get excitable whenever i'm in tenjin. | 4 |
| if this shop really originated hakata ramen, then color me impressed. with shoyu leanings and a distinctive, glutinous tonkotsu soup, it may well be a window into the origins of the style, and the evolution that soon followed. | NA |
赤のれん天神本店 hours: 11a - 11p | 23 |
