めん徳二代目つじ田 味噌の章 (Mentoku Nidaime Tsujita Miso no Shô)

Some bowls you just know are gonna be great. At last winter's Odaiba Ramen Event , Keizo and I tried out bowls from shops near and far, and the hands down winner was Nidaime Tsujita Miso no Shô. This miso ramen nearly knocked our socks off. And that lucky dogg has gone on to meet none other than Mr. Tsujita Takehiro himself, owner and head chef of a couple of shops located in central Tokyo famous for their tsukemen, and now miso.


This time around though, Ramen Adventurer Brian and I headed out to Ogawa-cho on a rainy day to get the real deal out of a non-plastic non-festival bowl. Could Tsujita's miso really be as bomb shliggity as I remembered it?


Answer? Yes. Look at this bowl. This is a thing of beauty. It is so beautiful. It is such a beautiful thing to behold. Let's see it from a different angle.


Break it down - smoothly sliced egg, ever-so-slightly gooey in the middle. Generous chunk of ginger. Dab of minced garlic. Diced pork chunks. A smattering of aonori seaweed. Fresh pickled bamboo the size of small timbers. A dusting of red pepper flakes. And of course, key to any true bowl of miso ramen - a hefty helping of bean sprouts wokked togeter with the soup and the miso paste.


I could go on and on about what different kinds of miso go into this complex blend. I could wax poetic about the thick and chewy noodles. I could tell you how the blend of sweet, salty, oil, and ginger makes you want to lick the bowl.


But I'm just gonna leave it at this is a damn delicious bowl of ramen. Along with Sapporo Junren and Kururi, perhaps the best (or at least my fave) bowl of miso anywhere in town.


Oh yeah, I got the "special rice" too. It had a sudachi citrus on it. It was OK. BUT MY GOD THE RAMEN! (I know this post may not be up to the dense prose that you're used to at Ramenate, but what can I say, this one struck me speechless).