Noodles served with tuna, yellowtail, whale meat or other ingredients are becoming the flavor of the moment in Tokyo, mesmerizing foodies with the novel combinations crafted by the chefs.
A restaurant in the Senkyaku Banrai tourist facility adjacent to the Toyosu wholesale market in Tokyo's Koto Ward is popular for its ramen with simmered tuna cheek meat and soup made from bluefin tuna bones.
"To ensure the consistency of the taste of the soup, we use cultured bluefin instead of wild bluefin," the restaurant manager said. The restaurant therefore buys tuna bones and cheeks directly from a fish farmer in Ehime Prefecture.
Ramen featuring a specific variety of tuna is rare. Backed by demand from health-conscious people, up to 200 bowls of tuna ramen are sold daily at the restaurant, mainly to female customers, the manager said.
Meanwhile, at Awaya Iccho, a somen noodle restaurant in Tokyo's Suginami Ward, dishes featuring sashimi made from tuna, bonito, yellowtail and others have become popular.
The restaurant offers famous Handa somen from Tokushima Prefecture served with fish sashimi toppings and a warm soup based on stock made with kelp and bonito flakes.
"Raw fish goes well with our soup and is popular," the restaurant manager said.
In late December 2024, Tamaki, a Japanese soba noodle restaurant using whale meat, opened in Tokyo's Nakano Ward. Using buckwheat flour from Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, it serves soba featuring deep-fried whale meat as well as whale stomach and skin.
Alongside the regular soba menu, the restaurant offers rare dishes such as sashimi from various parts of whales. The establishment is gradually gaining popularity.
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