Onomichi ramen
Photo: Ozchin from Onomichi, Hiroshima · CC BY-SA 2.0

History

Onomichi ramen developed in the port town east of Hiroshima, where the Seto Inland Sea supplied dried sardines and other small fish for stock. The bowl combines that seafood base with chicken broth and soy sauce, then adds squares of rendered pork back fat that melt slowly into the surface, giving richness without a heavy tonkotsu body. Flat noodles are the local convention. The style travelled beyond the prefecture faster than Hiroshima city's own chuka soba, and is now the better known of the two nationally.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Soy, Fish

Make it at home

Yield Serves 2Hands-on 25 minTotal 2 hrDifficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken carcass
  • 30g dried sardines, heads and guts removed
  • 1 piece kombu
  • 1.5 litres water
  • 80ml soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • 80g pork back fat, finely diced
  • 2 portions flat ramen noodles
  • 4 slices braised pork
  • 3 spring onions, sliced
  • 2 tbsp menma

Method

  1. Soak the kombu and dried sardines in the water for 30 minutes.
  2. Add the chicken carcass, bring slowly to a bare simmer and cook for 90 minutes, skimming as needed.
  3. Remove the kombu after 20 minutes so the stock does not turn slippery.
  4. Simmer the diced back fat in a little water for 10 minutes until translucent, then drain.
  5. Strain the stock, return 1 litre to the pan and season with the soy sauce and mirin.
  6. Cook the noodles, drain and divide between bowls. Ladle over the broth.
  7. Top with the pork, menma, spring onion and a generous spoon of the back-fat cubes.

Tip from the editors. Render the back fat separately rather than in the broth, or the stock clouds and loses the clean soy edge.

Where to eat onomichi ramen

Onomichi ramen in Hiroshima

Featured by TableJourney as a signature dish of Hiroshima. See where to eat Onomichi ramen in Hiroshima or the Hiroshima signature dishes guide.

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