SUSAKI (ANN/YOMIURI SHIMBUN) – For nearly three decades, Mayumi no Mise has served a nostalgic local, speciality ramen in pottery pots.
The ramen shop is in Susaki, Kochi Prefecture’s centre region in Japan, near a historic timber port from the Showa period (1926-1989).
The words nabeyaki ramen are displayed in front of the shop. The term nabeyaki often reminds the Japanese the images of udon, but in this town, it refers to ramen noodles simmered in an earthenware pot.
Mayumi no Mise was established nearly 30 years ago as a nabeyaki ramen speciality store.
When the shop opens at 11am, regulars from the area and businessmen in suits flood in, filling the 20-seat restaurant.
“Sometimes people start lining up even before we open,” said Mayumi Okumoto, 75, who was wearing a red headscarf.
Mayumi and her eldest daughter, Fumie Kubota, 46, deftly place the earthenware pots on the gas stove as soon as they hear the orders, including large nabeyaki, curry nabeyaki and rice and kimchi nabeyaki.
They add thin slices of chicken and special soy sauce, then pour the clear golden broth into the pot. The broth is brought to a boil over high heat, and the thin noodles are dipped into the hot water for a few seconds before it is added.
An egg is gently cracked on top of the ingredients followed by green onions and chikuwa fish paste. The lid is then placed on top. After the soup starts to boil again, it is served to the customers along with pickled daikon radish as a palate cleanser.
One serving costs JPY850. When I opened the lid, I could hear simmering and saw steam rising from the bowl. When I went for my chopsticks, Mayumi said; “It’s hot. Don’t burn yourself.”
A regular customer in his 50s blew into the pot and began to slurp up the soup in a hurry. “The ingredients are simple, but it’s so rich and delicious,” he said.
NEVER FORGOT THE TASTE
Nabeyaki ramen is also a taste that Mayumi has fond memories of. The ramen was originally served in a back street restaurant run by an elderly couple just after World War II, but that shop closed more than 40 years ago.
The dish is said to have been invented when they delivered ramen to the port still in a pot to keep it from getting cold.
Mayumi said she “never forgot the taste” of the first nabeyaki ramen she ate with money she earned herself after graduating from junior high school.
Even after she married her husband Masakatsu, now 76, at the age of 25 and opened an okonomiyaki eatery about 40 years ago, she couldn’t forget the taste of the ramen. While raising her three children, she became obsessed with re-creating that taste from memory.
She knew that chicken was the base of the broth, with its deep and rich umami taste and clean aftertaste, but she had no idea what else to use.
Though she tried various vegetable combinations, she couldn’t replicate the flavour.
She repeatedly served her husband and acquaintances the ramen she prepared and asked for their opinions. “My mother often served ramen at home. I loved it, no matter the flavour,” Fumie said. One day, at a ramen tasting, the workers at Masakatsu’s ironworks business looked at each other and said, “You did it!” It had been 10 years since she started the trial cooking.
When she started serving the ramen at her shop on a trial basis, people who missed the taste of nabeyaki ramen served by the elderly couple began visiting.
In 1997, Mayumi turned the restaurant into a nabeyaki ramen specialty shop.
Four years later, the shop was featured on a national television show highlighting unique ramen and its popularity exploded, attracting 500 customers a day.
With two stock pots of soup being prepared in turn, “my shop had a continuous stream of customers even after 10pm. We didn’t have time to eat,” she said.
A LOCAL DELICACY
It was Fumie who swooped in to save the day.
“When I was busy, she quit her job and came to help me. I was so happy that I cried,” she said. She had nothing to teach Fumie, who had watched her make ramen from a young age, she said.
In the 2000s, a group of supporters from an economic group began to promote nabeyaki ramen as a local delicacy. The number of eateries serving ramen of this kind increased, and now there are 28 in the area.
Mayumi’s shop is one of the oldest and continues to be well-loved.
“The ingredients for the soup are secret, except for the chicken broth and onions,” she said with a smile.
Looking at Fumie, who took over the restaurant two years ago, she whispered, “I’m so grateful to know that the restaurant’s unique flavour will continue on. I think the earthenware pot ramen will continue to make memories for people.” – Sayuri Nitani
