Niigata Ramen

Ramen of Niigata Prefecture 新潟ラーメン とは, is Japan’s snowiest area and is known as the heart of snow country. With wide rice fields and melted snow waters coming down from the mountainside there are many reasons to seek some of the tastiest soups in Japan. While many people know it for the sake, Niigata city, the capital, is famous for many things, but one that sticks out is backfat ramen as an iconic dish that instantly makes people think of Niigata Ramen. The visual of small floating pieces of fat looks like ice in the melted snow, but it is fat floating on top of a lake of delicious soup with noodles.

Niigata’s Iconic Ramen comes from the area of Tsubame City and has become a standard style of ramen to eat in the local area. But, it also attracted ramen gastro tourism for those seeking out the ramen, which brought many people far away during the winter season. A restaurant called “Katsu Tanmen (らーめん勝～華炎タンメン)” would have eye-catching metal bowls that would remind people of a theme of metalworks found throughout many Niigata dishes. The bowls made people think about metalwork decorations of bowls: (1) to keep food warm for a longer period of time, (2) a display of metal craftsmanship, (3) easy to clean.

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Niigata Ramen Kingdom, is based off the major flavors of ramen that rule the ramen culture of Niigata Prefecture. Niigata Locals know there are the “Five Major Ramen” according to Kazuaki Tanaka that represents different cities, like: Nagaoka (Ginger-Shoyu), Sanjo (Curry), Tsubame (Backfat), Mabomen (Mabodofu), and Niigata City (Light-Shoyu & Rich Miso). Variations are found in towns, wards, and side streets, so those looking for great ramen are always looking around for delicious local ramen shops.

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Warm liquid soups that keep the people warm and that has made it really popular in such a cold and snowy region such as Niigata. So much so that it is known to have its own “Warring Ramens” of the “Ramen Kingdom” where five major types battle for the rulers of best ramen types by the locals. The standard of Ramen has become as high as a place like Tokyo where the old-style ramen houses have to keep on upgrading their menus to meet the needs of its customers against the new-style ramen houses. Niigata Prefecture has a love of noodles with local specialties being: stir-fried wheat noodles "Itarian", buckwheat flour noodles with seaweed "hegi soba", and pasta is a favorite as well. Niigata spends the most on Instant Cup Noodles in Japan and the third most on Italian Pasta. So it is important to keep in mind warm soups, warm dipped things, and anything that includes noodles to be something that the people of Niigata will thoroughly enjoy.

Warring Niigata Ramen against Yamagata Ramen and Miyagi Ramen.

Niigata residents spend the most on ramen among Japan families when dining out. The average household in Niigata spends 13,734 yen ($107) on ramen when dining out. A close second is Yamagata, which spends 300 yen less on ramen 13,434 yen ($105) when dining out. People get tired of rice in Niigata because rice is everywhere in promotions, amazing rice is at home, and its one of the country’s largest rice producing areas, so people prefer something more special when dining out. 2023.02.07 Niigata City (12,573 yen) was beaten by Yamagata City (13,196 yen) in ramen spending per household according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' 2022 with 10 Yamagata ramen shop owners gathered at City Hall hugged each other in joy when officials informed them of the results. Mayor Takahiro Sato said, ``I'm extremely happy. I was relieved because it received so much attention.'' The plan is to issue a ``sacred place declaration'' on the 8th. It was followed up by Sendai City at (12,480 yen).

Spicy Variations of Niigata Ramen
Masayuki Mikami, Shinto Priest, in Sanjo City started a ramen development project out of frustration to bring Niigata back to the top of Ramen spending charts and surveyed the flavors that people in Niigata seek out of Ramen. There were ten ramen chefs that usually see each other as opponents, but meeting together to share ideas and evaluate each others spicy variations of niigata ramen created a network of ramen shops working towards spicy variations in the prefecture.

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Niigata Ramen Club https://uonuma-niigata.com/category/ramen/
Twitter https://twitter.com/Ramen_Niigata
Waseda http://www.kenoh.com/2019/02/06_waseda.html
CNA https://www.channelnewsasia.com/japan-hour/ramen-trip-part-1-2057536

Ramen Variations
(01.) Niigata Shoyu Ramen, (01a.) Niigata Assari Shoyu Ramen, (01b.) Niigata Light Soy Sauce Ramen, (01c.) Shoga Shoyu Ramen, (02.) Niigata Backfat Ramen (Tsubame Sanjo Backfat Ramen), (03.) Niigata Miso Ramen, (04.) Niigata Curry Ramen, (05.) Niigata Mabomen, (05a) .