ラーメン なかむら ramen nakamura: ox fab
If, as a child, there was one dish from my mother’s not-particularly vast bag of homemade hybrid-ethnic recipes that I would not have instantly passed over in favor of a Big Mac, it might have been her ox-tail soup, with succulent chunks of stringy meat nestled in pockets of alienesque bovine bone, little beefy baseballs floating in a stew of carrots and potatoes. It was something an Asian kid might imagine white Americans eating, all meat-and-potatoes instead of rice, never mind the weirdness and, as I would later find out, the downright Chineseness of the dish, right alongside “Portuguese” and “African” chicken of the kind you find on menus at Cantopop cafes throughout Southern Calfornia’s San Gabriel Valley.
Ox tail has never seemed to me a particularly flavorful meat. Boiling it for stew rather drains the life out of it, which I suppose is what makes my mom’s soup so tasty. So I was curious when I wandered into Ramen Nakamura in Honolulu, smack in the heart of tourist-trod Waikiki and a block from yes, the Louis Vuitton store. How would they do “ox-tail ramen”, their apparent osusume specialty?
As it turned out, very very plainly, with boiled ox-tail, presumably cooked separately, set atop a fair bowl of shio ramen and served with shoyu and grated ginger for dipping. With crushed garlic, a dose of spicy sesame oil, and a competent, light broth, it’s good stuff. Were it not for the presence of Tenka Ippin, I might be happy to frequent Ramen Nakamura whenever I’m in Honolulu, but as it stands, the fare is perfect as a lighter alternative to one too many bowls of Tenka’s kotteri chicken ramen. However, now that I’ve had the ox-tail, still bland, still sapped of all but a subtle beef flavor, I could reasonably do well without it; Nakamura’s shio ramen is fine on its own.
Ramen Nakamura is a fine shop, and the reasonable complement to a day in the surf or shopping on Waikiki. Considering the sheer number of Japanese tourists in Honolulu at any given time, one would think there’d be a few more ramen shops around. There aren’t many, but this one at least, holds up admirably.
| the shio broth that accompanies the ox-tail ramen is competent, fair and light. with a touch of the spicy sesame oil lurking around the menma, it comes alive and holds its own. | 7 |
| the sun noodle factory ramen noodles are chewier and slightly better than generic ramen shop product. there's little to complain about int his department when it comes to 50th stateside ramen. | 6 |
| the much-lauded ox-tail is boiled and sapped of strong flavor; it's decent and beefy enough but has little to do with the bowl of noodles sitting under it. the bok choy and menma are fine. | 6 |
| i sampled a bit of my friend's gyoza, but really the oxtail functions as much as a side dish as anything else. that said the dumplings are plump and fairly ordinary in both flavor and filling. do what it takes if you've got the stomach to spare. | 5.5 |
| light and breezy, ramen nakamura is decked out with celebrity autographs from the numerous japanese visitors to hawaii. it's a good place for a quick bite off the boulevard, but i wouldn't loiter around in here when glorious waikiki beach a few steps away. | 3 |
| why does hawaii not have more ramen shops? fortunately, the handful that are around are for the most part, decent. ramen nakamura is no exception, a fine representative in a part of town that could use a few more. | 4 |
2141 Kalakaua Ave #1 | 19 |
