For those of you who have not had the pleasure of ramen it is a thin soup with noodles in, often with some seaweed, a boiled egg and some thin pork slices on top. It is very filling, very delicious and is the food most salarymen have at 3am after a night's drinking. Basically a more meal-like doner kebab.
Since it is delicious it is also a popular meal at any time of the day, and consequently pretty much every ramen shop is constantly churning people through their doors at an impressive rate. Incidentally the rate at which you eat ramen is inversely proportional to the thinness of the noodles. Actually I'm not sure that lemma would hold much water under close scruitiny but what I'm trying to say is that the noodles are thin and you eat them fast before they go too soggy.
You get a spoon and chopsticks with which to slurp the soup and noodles respectively, and the more noise you make the cooler you are in the world of ramen. As you can tell I often frequent ramen establishments and although a fair portion of my visits are in the hours one might normally associate with sleepping, a second fair portion are during the day time as I find myself in various locations in need of sustenance.
I've noticed that the music in the afore mentioned establishments is often upbeat and uptempo - perhaps to keep customers slurping away to ensure the queue of people outside don't get too cold whilst waiting around for a seat to become available - but also that much of it is by western artists.
A popular choice is The Beatles which I've heard various compilations of over several meal times, although the ultimate in wierd eating experiences has got to be one lunch time in Shibuya when I slurped my heart out to the frustratingly catchy novelty song by Rolf Harris: Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport.
Not a day goes by that you don't notice or experience something strange, whacky or just plain different in this town, but that occasion has the accolade of causing me to whiste the Kangaroo tune all afternoon!
Post a comment