hakata daruma tonkotsu ramen: mellow gold

by rameniac | 05 Nov 2009

Okay, so I’ve been totally neglecting the “instant ramen reviews” section of this website. Truth be told, I’ve been trying to cut back on the stuff, and on the off chance that I do manage to crack open a bowl of instant noodles, I’m usually too lazy (or starved) to break out the camera and photograph the thing before I eat it. Which, as you might imagine befits someone with a slight case of OCD, leads me to stockpile instant noodles and just generally keep them around for consumption at a later date. Yes, I have huge storage containers full of the stuff sitting in my closet, and even state-of-the-art preservatives are no match for the passage of time. What a tragedy.

And so to avoid a tragedy, I had better get on this shit, starting right now with this very premium, very exclusive bowl of Hakata Daruma instant ramen, a special edition released by 7 and i holdings (7-11 to you Yanks) and sold strictly in their shops in Fukuoka. (It’s #006 in a series of Japan’s regional instant ramen).

Daruma is a venerated shop in Tenjin, Fukuoka city. Born in 1963, it’s been around for years, and is one of the go-to, downlow joints less frequented by tourists than by locals. Its broth is a smooth, even blended tonkotsu with a mellow yet strong whiff of pork,distinguished by the heavy presence of garlic. The recipe has translated well into its convenience store incarnation; even in appearance, it bears a startling rehydrated representation of the real thing, with luscious fat striations in the sweet, almost kakuni-like slivers of chashu, and startlingly crunchy kikurage wood-ear mushroom. Though the noodles could have been fresh packed as in some types of instant ramen, they hold their own and stand a cut above the typical Acecook thin white noodles.On taste alone, instant Daruma gets 5 stars; as a total package, you could only do better at the shop itself.