Rairaiken, the oldest ramen shop in Japan, recreated in the Yokohama Ramen Museum

Asakusa Rairaiken (淺草 來々軒) is generally considered to be the first ramen shop in Japan, opening its doors in 1910 (or 1909, depending on the source). I went to check out the present day Rairaiken with Mike Satinover aka Ramen Lord, who was in Japan at the time. Make sure to check out his ramen shop Akahoshi in Chicago, once its doors open in October 2023!

Ramen Lord’s Instagram:
► https://www.instagram.com/ramen__lord

The Rairaiken iteration is a collaboration between the Yokohama Ramen Museum, the legendary ramen shop Shinasobaya and the descendants of Rairaiken. The goal is to recreate the original recipe as closely as possible, without actually having the real recipe available. How they did that is worthy of a documentary, but in short, they collected all the information they could from newspapers and other accounts at the time, as well as the first-hand experiences from people like the still living grandson of the original Rairaiken owner Ozaki Kuniichi, who is allegedly the only still living relative to have tasted the original bowl of ramen, when Ozaki-san was around. But they did not stop there. They even used the same flour for the noodles as it was used back in the day and used the same old school techniques for things like the menma and the chashu.
While it is debatable, if every nuance is exactly as it was in 1910, it is probably as close as we are ever going to get in modern times.

The ramen itself is very nostalgic and reminds me of shops like Eifukucho Taishoken and Aoshima Shokudo, with strong and bold soy sauce flavors, as well as ginger and dried seafood elements. I would describe it as more intense and punchy than Taishoken, but milder than the very wild Aoshima Shokudo, probably somewhere in the middle between those two shops.

For the noodles, you have to choices. While Ramen Lord went with the classic thin noodles, I went with the “aodake” bamboo kneaded noodles. The aodake noodles are somewhat thicker and have a very dense consistency, almost like some udon I had. The chew of those is super enjoyable and the thick noodles fit well to the intense soup.

The chashu was a great highlight as well, lean cuts of pork, roasted and with the typical red ring on the outside. Smoky, tender and very fitting to this classic bowl of ramen. The menma were also very good, super nice chew and crunch to them, also very plentiful. I like it, when I can have some menma with almost every slurp of noodles.

Find Asakusa Rairaiken (淺草 來々軒) in the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum on Google Maps:
► https://maps.app.goo.gl/bkuK6ZHFTRhAWGcG6

#ramen #rairaiken #japanesefood

Listen to the “Ramen in Japan” podcast for lots of information about all the ramen shops in Japan:
► https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rameninjapan

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