Ramen is a noodle soup dish that originally made its way from China to Japan when the country reopened its borders through the Meiji Restoration. The dish has been refined and improved to this extent in the last century that it has almost overshadowed its original Chinese cousins ??on the world stage. The world of ramen is quite complicated which article will systematically classify the various styles of ramen that are common in Japan along with their various soup flavors, broth types, meats, and accompanying toppings.

hio Ramen. Shio means salt which is traditionally how ramen soup is flavored. All Western broths would be considered to be of the Shio type. The salt does not alter the appearance of the broth and then the Shio soup is commonly light and limpid in color. Shio flavored soup will tend to be a little more salty compared to the other types.

torino ramen

hoyu Ramen. Shoyu means soy sauce which is the next oldest kind of flavor. Rather than salt, a sauce obtained from the fermentation of soybeans is used to make the broth salty. This sauce is not your regular table soy sauce, but typically a particular sauce with additional ingredients prepared according to a secret recipe. Broth for Shoyu may be the only type that tends not to contain pork. Shoyu soup is also usually clear, but it is dark in color and sweeter than Shio soup.

iso Ramen. In more recent times, miso paste has also been used to give ramen broth its savory flavor. If miso can be used, it is immediately evident because the soup will be opaque. Shio or Shoyu flavored soups just accentuate the flavor of the broth below, while miso leaves a fuller and more complex taste in the mouth as it also has a strong flavor.

onkotsu Ramen. Technically it’s not a real flavor as it contains salt or soy sauce. It really is made by boiling ground pork bones (ton = pork, kotsu = bones) for 12-15 hours until all of the collagen has dissolved in the broth like jelly (details here). The effect is a rich whitish soup distinct enough to take into account Tonkotsu as a separate fourth flavor of Ramen. To be clear, the utilization of pork bones does not automatically imply that the soup is of the Tonkotsu type. If the pork bones are boiled whole for a relatively shorter period, the result is just normal pork broth.