In Japan, ramen aficionados fear for their favorite dish - my favorite dish in the restaurant essay

The new year begins with a bowl of wonton noodle soup in northeastern Tokyo.
Cold acid-
On a recent Monday, he served a second bowl of noodles at Soranoiro, a fashion noodle shop in central Tokyo. 359.
"The taste is good," he said after a hearty special dinner.
"Great.
He put a standard
Post a big paper apron around his neck
The restaurant is in the business district and office workers don't want to go back to work with splashes
Took a picture of him eating before he started.
More than an hour later, Yamamoto was stuffed into the first bowl.
360, a bowl of steaming bon fish soup with chewy noodles in a Chinese restaurant
Stylish restaurant not far from the subway station.
"It smells very good --
"Fresh fish," he said.
"I would give it 10/10.
Yamamoto is one of Japan's "King of ramen"a self-
Noodles-
Tang blame proved his qualifications in the national blind competition.
Taste the ingredients and determine what ingredients are missing from the popular soup.
He can also be described as a threat to be ho-
Even if its stock rises abroad, it will hum.
According to data from the Shinyokohama Ramen Museum, the number of bowls and restaurants selling ramen in Japan has steadily declined in recent years.
"The ramen boom is over," says Ivan Orkin, a New Yorker who first traveled to Japan in his 1980 s and now has two ramen types --
Soup restaurant in Tokyo.
"Prosperity means there are new avenues and new growth that need to be pursued, which is no longer the case in Japan.
Fifteen years ago, a friend of Yamamoto began collecting covers for instant noodles, a staple food for computer fans around the world.
His friends gathered enough people to hold the exhibition, and Yamamoto went to the exhibition with him.
The experience aroused his appetite.
"I tried several different ramen noodles there, which made me feel like I should try more," Yamamoto said . ".
He made more attempts.
In the first year, he ate about 500 bowls and formed a complex enough taste to win his ramen crown.
But Yamamoto thinks his peak is too fast. he has no experience in ramen to justify his title.
So he started running around the country.
When he ate 2004 bowls, his best ramen year was 1,221.
This applies to 3. 3 a day.
Now, he averages two bowls a day.
Yamamoto, 44, said: "I always like to eat . " He deliberately set his schedule free enough --
He is a freelance computer systems engineer.
Keep his ramen addiction.
He can be called Fuller tactfully.
Calculated in a country with few average buildings.
Although few consumers can keep up with Yamamoto, ramen noodles are becoming more and more popular around the world.
Japanese noodles
There are soup shops from Sydney to Stockholm.
In Washington, New York and Los Angeles, the most fashionable new ramen restaurants are lined up.
The Japanese government also uses ramen as a form of soft power.
Or at least al dente power.
It helped organize ramen events to display ramen soup in cities like Paris and Hong Kong, part of its "Cool Japan" campaign.
Supporters of ramen are trying to teach foreigners how to eat ramen.
They said it enhanced the taste.
Finish the Bowl in five minutes so the noodles don't get wet. (
Yamamoto does not believe Americans can spend 30 minutes at ramen restaurant easily. )
Ramen came to Japan from China.
In 1910, the Tokyo Center opened its first famous ramen shop, but after World War II, ramen consumption began to pick up when Japanese soldiers came back from the Chinese battlefield and began making noodles with quantitative flour.
At that time, the ramen was made with all the bits and pieces left over from other foods, a way to save and avoid waste.
This is the opposite of sushi.
Use only the best ingredients, less is more
But it is still considered an integral part of Japanese culinary identity.
As Japan's economy grew faster in the 1980 s, ramen began to take off.
As more and more Japanese people can afford to travel, they will try different types of noodle soup, such as the taste o ramen in Sapporo and the famous thick pork in Fukuoka --broth ramen.
People in the provinces began to celebrate the uniqueness of their bowls.
Ramen chefs have also begun to use more expensive ingredients, a dish that, even if it is not a premium dish, is itself a delicacy and a symbol of the wider transformation of the country.
Restaurants grow exponentially
It is estimated that there are 10,000 in Tokyo alone
The chefs began to try different kinds of bread and ingredients.
Yamamoto says the ramen boom shows the best of Japan.
"We made Chinese noodles better.
We have improved the soup.
"We added a lot of ingredients and made a great meal," he said . ".
But now it seems that the noodle soup is boiling for some Japanese.
"Japanese ramen is no longer considered something fresh or interesting," said Chiba Hyun-Zhi, chairman of the Japanese ramen Association, which consists of 500 ramen restaurant owners.
"All the different varieties have been tried;
"Everything has been tried," Chiba said at a booth at a large food industry trade show in Tokyo . ".
Orkin thinks soup has become ubiquitous.
When he opened his first store in Japan in 2007, people thought it was crazy for him to put tomatoes in the ramen.
When he started adding cheese at the second store, they thought he was more crazy, but it quickly became his most popular dish.
"When I first went to Japan, ramen was very popular with office workers and truck drivers. It was a blue-
A junk food. "He said.
"If I suggest a well
Women in high heels will eat ramen and people will laugh at me.
But now the ramen has completely penetrated into the society.
"Rikiya Yamaji, a food journalist and ramen critic, is concerned about the lack of originality in ramen today.
"In the past few years, many places have begun to imitate a trend or steal an innovative technology," he said . "
"So no love and passion for ramen, no respect for other ramen chefs and their original.
But some fanatic people will not be discouraged.
At the end of the second lunch, when asked what he was going to eat that night, Yamamoto paused and seemed to say something obvious: "ramen.
Yuki Oda contributed to this report.