Featured image by Yoco**. Originally posted: Dec13th, 18, Updated on Nov 20th, ’22, March 20, ’23
I have had my idiot moments, but I am in good company with the sheer number of misguided bloggers, food producers, and media outlets. Regardless of how much information is out there, some will call all Asian-based noodles “ramen.”
To help us from all not being idiots, I have put together a basic guide on all the Japanese noodles (the styles/types) from ramen, konnyaku/shirataki, soba, somen, to udon that even I can follow.
Not all noodles are instant or “ramen,” and if that is confusing, let me also tell you that all pasta is not spaghetti. If that blows your mind, there is also a difference between fresh and dried pasta.
Also, not all Asians are either Chinese or Japanese.
There are three basic components for Japanese noodle dishes
- Noodles
- Broth, brothless, or dipping
- Toppings
Most Japanese noodles are made up of (love, but aside from that):
- Wheat (not rice)
- Water (ramen has high alkalinity)
- Salt
It is all in the details
- Ingredients: various types of flour from wheat to buckwheat.
- Size: thickness of the noodle.
- Broth/Dish: broths are typically made up of soy sauce, katsuobushi, konbu, mirin, and sake.
- Toppings: unlike what misinformed food bloggers may want you to believe, bok choy, corn, edamame, shiitake, enoki, and other ‘Oriental’ sounding ingredients are not used or common in authentic Japanese noodle dishes.
1. Ramen
The yellow hue comes from the alkaline (kansui) in the noodles.
Without kansui, you have udon, somen, or any other noodle.
Ingredients:
Wheat, flour, salt, water and kansui (alkaline water has a high pH which gives ramen its chew and yellow color). Note: fresh ramen is not the same as instant ramen. Instant ramen contains additional ingredients such as oil (for the dehydration process), starches (enhance gelling properties), polyphosphates (improves starch gelatinization), hydrocolloids (enhances water binding capacity during rehydration).
Size:
Thin, medium, to thick
Color:
Yellowish
TL;DR:
This is a ramen noodle.
Broth/Dish:
Shoyu (soy sauce), miso (fermented soy bean), tonkotsu (pork bone), to shio (salt) based soup broths.
Toppings:
Common toppings are negi (green onions), menma (fermented bamboo shoots), to chashu (roasted pork). Toppings will vary from type of ramen flavor to region.
Recipe(s):
Go to a ramen ya (restaurant), unless you have at least a day to kill just to produce the broth (not to mention, the know how). If you not, you these are a few American ramen producers that get the noodles right, and here are the Japanese instant noodle brands (none that can compare with a restaurant tho).
2. Ito Konnyaku/Shirataki
A zero calorie noodle because of its massive water content.
These noodles are a lot of fun to eat because they are slippery (it’s how I imagine a lion trying to eat the intestines out of an animal, slippery?).
Ingredients:
Konnyaku, konjac (the corm), devils tongue
Size:
Medium
Color:
White to speckled grey (hijiki/seaweed is added).
TL;DR:
This is not a ramen noodle.
Broth/Dish:
In sukiyaki and is widely used as a vegan ingredient. Health food fanatics love this noodle because it’s a very low-calorie gluten-free noodle which can be used in a number of strongly flavored dishes.
Recipe(s):
Justonecookbook.com sukiyaki recipe
3. Soba
The vast majority of Japanese noodles are made from wheat, but a soba noodle is one of the few to incorporate buckwheat, typically an 20/80 (nihachi) blend.
SE Asia and the Chinese are known for their rice noodles.
Ingredients:
Buckwheat with a blend of wheat flour and water.
Size:
Thin, Travis Barker thin.
Color:
Light brown, brown, to green (matcha).
TL;DR:
This is not a ramen noodle.
Broth/Dish:
Served hot and cold in a soy sauce based broth or concentrated dipping broth (soy sauce, kombu, sake, mirin, and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes).
Toppings:
Negi (green onions), tenkasu (tempura bits), kizami nori (julienned seaweed), wasabi (horseradish), to grated ginger and daikon.
Recipe(s):
To Make And Eat The Authentic Zaru Soba (Cold Soba)!
4. Somen
A good noodle to eat during the summer in a cold dashi (soup stock).
Every summer my grandmother would prepare it and she would have the dashi in a pitcher in the fridge.
Ingredients:
Wheat flour, salt, and water. Oil (such as sesame oil) is used in the production of the noodles.
Size:
Very thin
Color:
White
TL;DR:
This is not a ramen noodle.
Broth/Dish:
Typically served chilled and eaten in a soy based broth (soy sauce, mirin, konbu, and katsuobushi).
Toppings:
Grated ginger, sliced myoga (a cross between a shallot and ginger), and negi (green onions)
Recipe(s):
NHK World Japan somen noodles
5. Udon
If you like it thick, you know what I mean *wink *wink, udon noodles are your jam.
Booty shorts and thick thigh thickness.
Ingredients:
Wheat flour, salt, and water.
Size:
Thick
Color:
White
TL;DR:
This is not a ramen noodle.
Preparation:
Cold or hot brothless/pan-fried or in a broth of soy sauce, mirin, konbu, and katsuobushi.
Toppings:
Include tempura, tenkasu (tempura bits), kamaboko (fish cake), inariage (fried tofu), and negi (green onions).
Recipe(s):
How to make udon noodles by Just One Cookbook
Why Knowing these 5 Japanese Noodle Types/Styles Matter
The main issue is that people unfamiliar with or oblivious of Asians and Asian cuisine lump all Asians under one umbrella. That would be like lumping all Americans (from Californians, New Yorkers, to Floridians as all being the same), and we all know Floridians aren’t from this planet.
I am sure most Americans probably think that most Italians just eat pizza and spaghetti, so it is not a shocker that ramen is the only noodle most people think of related to the Japanese. Fortunately for you, you know that is not true,
Americanized Chinese food has been as American as tacos and spaghetti and meatballs, yet most Americans are missing out on the variety of noodles and pasta by the Chinese and Italians.
So these individuals that are mixing anything that sounds “Asian” to them because of their limited knowledge all dumped into one giant Bukakke spit bucket of Asian’ness (Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Thai, etc.). Likewise, I will also lump anybody who does this in as idiots.
Nice post