We’ve seen shellfish ramen soups made with a shio (salt) ramen flavor, but with recent increase of shoyu (soy sauce) based seafood soups the importance of shellfish ramen is on the rise. Today we’ll shine the spotlight on shellfish based ramen.
Shellfish Soups not just for Shio!
Many restaurants have offered shellfish soup (kai-dashi) ramen with a salt based shio-dare flavoring, but menus that pair shellfish soup with a soy sauce based shoyu-dare are starting to pop up more often. Shellfish are very effective for adding umami to chicken chintan (clear) soups, or soups flavored with straight soy sauce.
What Specific Shellfish are Used?
Using dried scallops (hotate), manila clams (asari) or hamaguri (asian hard clam or common Orient clam) can quickly drive up costs, so most ramen places have usually relied on the quahog or chowder clam (Mercenaria mercenaria). As the name implies, these clams are the ones most commonly found in clam chowder. Known as honbinosugai in Japan, their lower cost compared to manila clams or hamaguri made them very popular.
The itayagai or Japanese baking scallop (Pecten albicans) is a shellfish very similar to a sea scallop, but actually a different species. Japanese baking scallops have often been used as a substitute for sea scallops in ramen.
With the recent rise in gourmet high-end ramen however, soups using manila clams or hamaguri are increasing out there.
Conclusion? Shellfish Ramen Becoming Gourmet
Though we used to expect shio ramen to use cheaper chowder clams or Japanese baking scallops, today we have ramen featuring hamaguri or manila clams, shijimi (Japanese basket clams), or even oysters, so shellfish ramen are clearly on a high-end gourmet trend.
This bowl features asari (Manila clams) from “Kuso Oyaji Saigo no Hitofuri” in Osaka’s Namba area.
Extra Tip: 7-Eleven Refrigerated Kai-Dashi Ramen
If you need a quick meal in, or don’t have time to look for a ramen restaurant, Japanese combini (convenience stores) sell fresh refrigerated ramen for around 500 yen including shellfish based ones. These include all of the toppings and soup ready to just microwave and enjoy. The toppings are usually separated from the soup by an inner plastic lid that you remove before eating. Combini fresh ramen have become fairly high quality and can compete in flavor with real restaurants. 7-Eleven in particular has some kai-dashi refrigerated ramen that have an excellent shellfish flavor. Look for “貝だし” on the name / label. There are lots of rave reviews in particular for 7-Eleven’s Kai-dashi no umami shio ramen kokusan kome-ko shiyou (貝だしの旨み塩ラーメン国産米粉使用) if you can find it.
This bowl features a rich kaki (oyster) soup from “Men’ya Saichi” in Tokyo’s Kinshicho area.
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