For a delicious ramen experience in Otaru, head to Shodai (らーめん初代)! With its extensive menu and spacious dining area, Shodai offers the perfect spot to enjoy a meal in Hokkaido's picturesque port city.
Shodai: The Go-To Spot for Ramen in Otaru
Shodai offers a wide selection of ramen, each with its own unique flavor profile. It's worth noting that their ramen tends to be on the saltier side, even by Japanese standards.
However, this does not take away from their deliciousness.
Seafood Forward Shio Ramen
We begin with the lightest option: the clear, salt-seasoned shio ramen. The broth is crafted from a combination of dried shellfish, fish, shiitake mushrooms, kelp, and pork, with flavors extracted from the chashu toppings and minced pork.
The pork adds a rich, savory foundation that enhances the fish flavors. These flavors are further amplified by the salt seasoning mix, which has been rested for 4-5 days and is fish-centric, contributing to the dish’s well-rounded taste profile.
Bold Shoyu Ramen
The shoyu ramen can be considered a close cousin to the shio ramen. While it shares a similarly light and refreshing profile, its seasoning is bolder and more tangy - a common trait when shoyu (soy sauce) forms the base.
This version highlights the same delicious soup as the shio ramen but with the fish flavors subtly restrained. This is because the shoyu acts as a sort of barrier. The toppings remain consistent: seaweed, a generous slab of pork, menma (bamboo shoots), negi (spring onions), and an egg.
Punchy Miso Ramen
If you're looking for an even heartier bowl, the miso ramen is an excellent choice. Like the other ramen options at Shodai, it has a pronounced saltiness. To deepen the flavor, a touch of shoyu is added, along with Chinese numbing pepper and raw garlic for an extra kick.
This bold seasoning mix is left to mature for a full 20 days and cooked over high heat, resulting in a thicker, richer miso-based broth. The final soup is robust yet less fishy compared to the other two options.
White Shoyu Ramen
White shoyu is milder as a seasoning compared to regular shoyu. In this bowl, unpasteurized white shoyu is blended with white wine, sun-dried salt, shellfish, salmon-based fish oil, and chicken oil.
The chicken oil adds a rich, full-bodied texture to the soup, but make no mistake - fish flavors dominate the bowl, making it even more fish-forward than the shio ramen. Only 20 of these special bowls are served each day, so I was fortunate to have tried it. Lastly, the pork chashu is pan-fried in this one.
Shodai in Otaru offers an impressive lineup of ramen that caters to a variety of tastes, from the delicate seafood-forward shio ramen to the bold and hearty miso ramen, and the refined white shoyu ramen with its unique blend of flavors. For ramen enthusiasts visiting Otaru, Shodai is an essential stop.
Comments