Ramen is a
popular dish of noodles in soup, originally imported from China. It is generally regarded as being cheap and
unhealthy, somewhat akin to a fish supper or a late night kebab
in the UK.
I live in an apartment a little removed
from a busy road on which there is a ramen restaurant. You can walk to the restaurant from my
apartment in about one minute, by cutting through a narrow, dark alleyway.
About a year ago we started noticing a
splatter of vomit appearing at the foot of our steps once a week. The mess was always full of the mangled
remains of chewed, swallowed and regurgitated ramen noodles. Presumably, some binge drinker had
gotten into the habit of drinking too much at a bar, getting peckish for
ramen, and then realising that he couldn’t keep it down. Hurriedly paying the bill, he looked across
the street and found an inviting dark alleyway.
Stumbling quickly down the alleyway, he spewed his ramen gift at
my doorstep before catching the last train home, happy with his evening’s
entertainment.
Luckily, the binge drinking ramen eater has
stopped his activities around my apartment.
Maybe one day he couldn’t make it out of the door in time and he vomited
inside the ramen restaurant, forcing him to look for another quiet little
corner of Tokyo to decorate.
Anyway, this experience is what I think of
when I think of ramen. It doesn’t seem
like a gourmet dish to me. Some ramen
restaurants stew the bones of pigs in order to make the stock for their
soup. You can smell those places from
several streets away.
Presumably, Michelin hasn’t awarded a one
star rating to one of these noodle shops.
It would be only one step removed from giving a one star rating to a
branch of MOS Burger. It’s not that I
don’t like fried potatoes... I just
don’t associate them with gourmet dining.
The BBC article didn’t give much
information about the ramen restaurant which won the award. They did say that you can get ramen noodles
in a red wine sauce with rosemary barbecued pork. It certainly sounds more appealing than pigs’
bones. They also said that the
restaurant has only 9 seats, and that a bowl of noodles costs between 7 and
around 10 US dollars. That would make it
about 1,000 yen.
Perhaps one ought not to be prejudiced
about food. Just because ramen is cheap
and has a reputation to match, it doesn’t mean it isn’t delicious. I was thinking about what I would want for my
last meal on Earth. Rather than bother
with an Italian restaurant serving lots of different courses, truffles and
tiramisu, I might prefer something simple like natto and tuna donburi (meaning
on a bed of white rice). Besides being
tasty, you can eat it quicker and get started on the alcohol sooner!
Oh no, I’m starting to sound like the
mysterious Tokyo Ramen Vomiter. It
wasn’t me, honest. I’m British. After a night of heavy drinking, all I can
think of is late night fish supper. Yum!
Vocabulary:
to take to something – An informal phrase,
meaning to get into something; to start enjoying something
prestigious – highly respected, desired or
valued
akin to – similar to
a fish supper – a British junk food
speciality, consisting of fried fish in batter and chips (thick fried
potatoes),
to cut through (an alleyway) – to go
somewhere via a shortcut
an alleyway – a very narrow street, often
at the back of houses or only accessible by pedestrians
a splatter – the mess left when something
soft or containing liquid is messily spread over a wide area
to mangle – to break something up into a
complete mess of many pieces or parts
to regurgitate – to vomit; to bring back
food you have eaten
a binge drinker – someone who drinks a huge
or excessive amount of alcohol in a short time
to be peckish – to be (slightly) hungry
to spew – an informal way to say “to vomit”
to be prejudiced – to have a biased or
unfair view of something
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