Continuing on my ramen kick, I went to the ramen jiro (ラーメン二郎) in Meguro today. Ramen Jiro is one of the most famous ramen chains in Tokyo (there's somewhere slightly in excess of twenty of them, and this particular one (located here) is one of the most famous.
That there was still a pretty long queue when I got there at around 2.50 p.m. on a Saturday is a testament to its popularity. After waiting for about 30 minutes, I finally got a seat and tried the yama ramen buta iri (山ラーメン 豚入り), or in English, mountain ramen with extra pork.
My advice to any first timer is not to even bother with the extra pork, and just eat the smallest portion. The pork itself is nice, very soft and fatty, which is how I like it, but unfortunately, incredibly salty. I could've done without the extra pork. The ramen itself comes with three possible toppings you can ask for: extra vegies (yasai; 野菜), garlic(ninniku; にんにく), and abura (extra fat; あぶら).
I went for the garlic and less than five minutes later, I was presented with a huge bowl of ramen. This is definitely not a ramen for the faint hearted, and I think any pork averse gaijin better stay well away from Jiro-style ramen. The soup is an incredibly rich and oily pork based soup. So rich and oily that it's just about impossible to drink it down. I myself--no stranger to porkiness and richness of soup--left about half a bowl of soup in the bowl; I had reached my limit and couldn't drink it down. The noodles are very thick and remind me a little bit of Chinese style hand made noodles in consistency.
Did I like it? Yes I did. But I must say, I think it seriously pushes the limits of richness, fattiness, porkiness and saltiness, all to the border of acceptability.
To sum up, this is definitely not a girly ramen. To the contrary, it's kinda like the Arnie of ramen. For the ramen jaded, this may be quite welcome and refreshing. Just don't come crying to me if you find it too overpowering for your liking.
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