JAPAN 🇯🇵
The first ever shop of this Hokkaido-based ramen chain was opened in 1988 in Asahikawa near the base of Mount Asahi, but the story begins a few years prior to that. The founder had been inspired by the 1985 film Tampopo, a comedy that was all about ramen, and felt that the options he and his family had available were not good enough.
Nowadays the company is located throughout Japan and even has a branch on tiny Okinawa. Its expansion to seven other countries in Asia and onto North America just seems natural. In the United States, many of the branches are located inside of Mitsuwa Marketplaces, like the one here in Edgewater, New Jersey.
They do have other offerings, but the original and unique offering of Santouka is the tokusen toroniku ramen ($12.50 for small, below), a bowl of the shio (salt) ramen in white tonkotsu soup with toppings served on the side. This is the classic and what they promise will be mild and perfect, not too salty even to the last slurp.
In that side dish are six slices of perfectly cooked fatty pork cheek meat to supplement the pork bone broth, along with bamboo shoots, chopped green onion, and red pickled plum. This can be added as desired piece by piece or all at the beginning.
Not shown well here, but also of note is the story of Santouka's custom bowl, or donburi. They use a thick porcelain that retains the heat of the soup and are always a pleasing blue color with white rim. No matter where you eat Santouka in the world, the bowl will always be the same.
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