For our first ramen video in 2020, Cody and me went for 2 crazy bowls in Shinjuku, the ramen center of Tokyo. Our first stop was at Housenka which offers a ramen based on golden bream, a type of snapper. Our second stop was at the famous Tatsunoya, which is famous for tonkotsu ramen. However we went for their second special, the intestine tsukemen.
Housenka is the second store of the famous Hayashida in Shinjuku. While Hayashida uses chicken as their broth base, Housenka is all about snapper, or golden eye bream to be more precise (kinmedai).
Their broth is intensely flavorful and full of snapper flavor. Almost hard to believe that you can infuse a broth with so much flavor that it feels like eating the filet off the fish. Well, you actually do get a bit of filet as topping as well, together with an incredible egg and thin cuts of pork shoulder which look slow cooked and almost rare, but keep cooking in the hot broth. The noodles are the same as Hayashida’s, which means you will find small specks of whole wheat in there that provide some interesting texture while biting down on them.
Overall an absolute delight and instantly one of my favorite’s in Shinjuku now.
Tatsunoya on the other hand has been quite popular for a while now and has a short line outside most of the time. They seem to be most famous for their white tonkotsu ramen, which we did not try this time. Instead we went for their interesting sounding intestine tsukemen, called motsu tsukemen.
The tsukemen still seem to be based on their tonkotsu with added niboshi elements, however all of that is overpowered with the black garlic oil that covers the bowl partially. Unfortunately the soup is also quite watery and does not stick well to the noodles. Mostly only the black garlic oil flavor and a very salty background remain. No real motsu/intestine flavor can be found in the broth, just some fried pieces of intestine are swimming around in the broth. Those taste good, but can’t cover the disappointment here. The noodles were good and the chashu was okay, however I still don’t really get the concept here. Maybe there are people who really like this one, but both Cody and me won’t be back for this bowl.
You can find Cody’s Ramen Guide here:
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Find Ramen Housenka (らぁ麺 鳳仙花) on Google Maps:
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Find Tatsunoya (龍の家) on Google Maps:
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Say Good Night by Joakim Karud –