Yamachan Ramen is One of the Best Ways to Make Homemade Japanese Style Ramen

Yamachan Ramen, an American born company with deep Japanese roots dating back to the ’90s, now has one of the largest ramen and Japanese noodle product lines for home cooks and chefs.

During the late ’90s, I had one of the first import tuner shops only a block or two away from Ringer Hut off Saratoga Avenue in San Jose, California, which is maybe why I feel a connection with Yamachan. My shop, Racer X was just the start of my journey, and it was also the start for Ringer Hut USA when it changed its name to Nippon Trends Food Service, Inc. in 2000 and started doing business as Yamachan Ramen.

Photo Description: The Yamachan Yokohama tonkotsu shoyu ramen packaging. The yellow and black package has a black bowl of ramen with serveral slices of chashu and ajitama. — That right there is a money shot for for product packaging.

Japanese Restaurants and Home Cooks Use Yamachan

Now after almost three decades later, Yamachan Ramen is one of the top producers and suppliers to restaurants throughout the country, and their product can also be found throughout a number of store shelves around the country.

The Yamachan Retail Product Line-up

Soy sauce flavor (left), Tokyo shoyu ramen, and miso flavor ramen (right).

Shoyu Ramen 醤油ラーメン (left): soy sauce flavored ramen. A mild, rich taste of ginger, and soy sause. Shoyu Ramen is a common flavor in Tokyo, Japan.
Tokyo Shoyu Ramen 東京醤油ラーメン (middle): This dish is an enhancement to the traditional Shoyu Ramen. The curly thick noodles harmonizes the broth, creating a luxurious ramen tasting experience.
Miso Ramen 味噌ラーメン (right): Originating from Hokkaido, Japan, Miso Ramen is made with red or white soybean paste, depending on the age of the paste. Nutty and sweet flavor

Sapporo miso ramen (left), tonkotsu (pork) ramen, and Yokohama tonkotsu shoyu (right).

Sapporo Miso Ramen 札幌味噌ラーメン (left): This dish is an enhancement to the traditional Miso Ramen. The thick wavy noodles harmonizes the broth, creating a luxurious ramen tasting experience.
Tonkotsu Ramen 豚骨ラーメン (middle): Pork and chicken flavor ramen. This is the gem of Japan’s ramen culture which hails from the Kyushu Prefecture. Tonkotsu Ramen is rich with a buttery flavor and silky texture.
Yokohama Tonkotsu Shoyu Ramen 横浜豚骨醤油ラーメン (right): A richer soy, chicken, and pork flavored ramen. This is Japan’s most popular ramen, with mellow flavors. The thick wavy noodles harmonizes with the broth creating a luxurious ramen tasting experience.

Seafood ramen (left), crispy noodles/saraudon, and fresh ramen noodles (right).

Seafood Ramen 塩ラーメン (left): A seafood base with salt to round it out. Shio Ramen is described as light and rich; representing an Umami flavor. Made from bonito, dried sardines and sea tangle.
Crispy Noodles aka Saraudon 皿うどん (middle): A chicken flavored dish. Saraudon literally translates to “dish noodle.” Saraudon is a staple in the Nagasaki Prefecture that is a fried noodle dish which pairs well with vegetables and seafood.
Fresh Ramen Noodles 新鮮な生ラーメン (right): By popular demand, Yamachan presents you with their noodle only ramen (two servings 120g each). Made only with quality ingredients, their ramen noodles are easy to cook, and have the same premium texture at ramen shops.

If you’re trying to look for the product, you can identify a ramen product because “ラーメン” means ramen.

If You Love Homemade Japanese Ramen, Here are a Couple Homies You Should be Following (Jackie and Ramen Zac)

To let you know up front, I did not explicitly ask my homies to do anything, and I just put the product out to them. Except, the ramen lovers they are, they did what many of you and I would do when we get legit ramen. We get to work on rounding up all the right toppings to make a complete bowl worthy of a ramen ya (ramen restaurant).

My comments are made via the image comments

Jackie H. / Miso Ramen 味噌ラーメン

Flavor: Salted Soybean. Net Weight: 11.29 oz (320g). Pack Size: Two Soup bases and Two noodles (120 g each).

Photo Description: Jacki is holding a package of Yamachan Miso flavor soup base (ramen). The package is yellow with a clear window where you can see the fresh noodles, along with a picture of the finished product on the right with corn, spinach?, an egg, and the noodles. — Jackie the hand model.

Jackie H: “@yamachanramenofficial gifted me a few samples of their ramen kits, and I’m THRILLED about it because it’s cold as f today 😆 If you’re not familiar (because I wasn’t!) with them, Yamachan Ramen is a small family-owned ramen manufacturer in the Bay Area that started back in 2000. They have a variety of fresh ramen packets (miso, shoyu, tonkotsu, etc) that comes with a bundle of fresh, springy ramen noodles and a soup base packet. Making their ramen is super simple—you boil the noodles for 1.5 minutes, then prep the soup base with some hot water, and voila—ramen! This is a nice step up from dry packaged ramen because the ramen noodles have a nice chew to them that you usually only get from fresh noodles at a restaurant, but the prep work is still very easy. The pandemic has made it a little tougher to go out for ramen, so this is the next best thing IMO.

Photo Description: a final product shot of the completed ramen bowl of miso ramen by Jackie. Her bowl has chashu, menma, corn, negi (green onion), and hanjuku (tamago). — Somebody killed it with all the toppings.

Jackie H: “For toppings, I bought some pork belly from Uwajimaya to make @justonecookbook’s chashu and also made some ajitsuke tamago. I also bought some of Yamachan’s menma (prepared bamboo shoots). TRUST ME, GUYS—BUY THE STUFF, DON’T TRY TO MAKE IT AT HOME. I’ve tried making it at home before without realizing that menma is FERMENTED. It won’t taste the same without the fermentation, so just buy the packet—it’s pretty inexpensive. I also added thinly sliced green onions and some blanched frozen corn, and there we are! A nice bowl of ramen made in the comforts of my home ☺️”

Jackie H. / Crispy Noodles aka Saraudon 皿うどん

Flavor: Chicken. Net Weight: 7.96 oz (218g). Pack Size: Two Sauces and Two noodles (90g each).

Photo Description: the nagasaki sara udon packaging. The text on the packaging says "chicken flavor, crispy noodles and soup base for 2 servings." — Not udon, but hot dogs are also not what they imply with their name.

Jackie H: “Despite the word “udon” in the name, sara udon isn’t the usual thick wheat noodle you’re used to slurping up from soup. Originating from a Chinese restaurant in Nagasaki, sara udon is a Japanese take on the classic Chinese crispy noodles/crispy chow mein with the stir-fried veggies and meats. For this dish, I added napa cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, kamaboko, onions, carrots, bean sprouts, thinly sliced pork loin, and some prawns. You usually make this dish with fresh snow peas too, but I just used what I had in the fridge! 😁 The resulting dish is a delightful mixture of textures and flavors! Pro tip: if you make this, break the noodles a bit and pour the saucy stir-fry mixture a little bit more to one side. Let the sauce soak into the noodles for a min or two, then mix everything together, you’ll get a fun mixture of ultra crispy noodles with softer noodles 🤤”

Photo Description: the completed sara udon prepared by Jackie. Her bowl of sara udon is placed next to her window that has a natural light highlighting her shrimp, kamaboko, shiitake, and vegetable sara udon. — Jackie just kills it with her preparation to product shots.

Jackie H: “These noodles remind me SO much of my childhood! My mom used to take us to Tung Kee Noodles in Mountain View, CA (back in the 90s!) on Saturday nights as a treat, and we’d eat something that was just like this, except made in the original Chinese-style. While slightly different from the noodles of my childhood, this sara udon tasted just as good and made me feel some nostalgic for home ❤️🏠 Thanks to @yamachanramenofficial for gifting me your Nagasaki Sara Udon kit!”

Follow Jackie @tablejus t forone on Instagram

Common and Authentic Ramen Toppings and Where to buy Ramen Toppings to the Spoon and Bowl

Ramen Zac / Tokyo Shoyu Ramen 東京醤油ラーメン

Flavor: Rich Soy Sauce. Net Weight: 12.77 oz (362g). Pack Size: Two Soup Bases and Two noodles (120 g each).

This is the packaging you should be keeping an eye out for.

Ramen Zac: Tokyo Shoyu Packaging Yamachan Ramen

All the necessary details on the back, and this is critical information because you want to know if you will be able to understand the cooking instructions.

Ramen Zac: Tokyo Shoyu ingredients and instructions

Not as dark as my soul, but that shoyu broth looks deep.

Ramen Zac: Tokyo Shoyu concentrate

Zac adding the hot water to the concentrate (look at that shot, and I bet he had one hand pouring and the other taking the shot).

Ramen Zac: Add hot water to the broth concentrate

I’m always too lazy to whisk (I use the noodles to whisk it), but this is how the pro’s do it.

Ramen Zac: Mix well with a whisk.

Ramen Zac: Cook the noodles for 1 minute. They are thin and will cook quickly.

Nice, look at that those bits of oil disrupting the surface of that shoyu broth (it’s what I look out for/want).

Ramen Zac: Pro tip, add a little cracked black pepper to this bowl and your own home toppings.

Thanks Mr. Z. who delivers with his thorough and extensive ramen content.

Ramen Zac: Thin noodles are served with this ramen kit, and I ran out of egg for toppings, but this Tokyo Shoyu from Yamachan was still awesome with the addition of some homemade chashu. I recommend you check out these noodles for yourself.

Follow Zac @Ramen_Zac on Instagram

Where to Buy Yamachan Ramen (Online/Offline)

Yamachan lists these retailers as businesses you can purchase their product through, but from my research none of the below listed retailers have the product available online although they may carry the product in their markets due to the perishability of the product (needs to be refrigerated).

99 Ranch Market: I typically direct link to the product, but Yamachan products are nowhere to be found on their online store (instant and frozen/refrigerated) products. Not to mention, their search oddly said “did you mean ramyun, raman.” WTF is raman?
Nijiya Market: they do not sell online.
Mitsuwa Market: they do not sell online.
Marukai Marketplace: they do not sell online.
H-Mart: due to the perishability of the Yamachan product, they do not come up as an available product although Yamachan is recognized (the most competent out of all the listed retailers of Yamachan).