Tomuchan, Setagaya, March 2013
Driving back from Dommune session. We stopped at this place entirely randomly as I was famished. Good thing then that it once more reinforced the theory that the gulliest looking ramen fronts harbour some of the best bowls in the land.
I had the Miso Tomuchan Ramen with wan tan, negi and extra chashu (top pic and details). The soup is Tonkoku, which if memory serves me is a local Tokyo version of Tonkotsu, basically a lot grittier than the white broth from the south, and not a million miles from Jiro, though the latter still has the fattiest broth I've found in the city.
The miso mixed with Tonkoku offers a nice balance of fat with a salty twang. The chashu was probably my favourite thing: warm and marinated in shoyu (which I've done at home before to great result), not too thin either. And when he meant extra he clearly did not joke. The negi was finely sliced and covered the bowl, adding some crunch and freshness. The wan tan was also very good, with a couple floating in the soup. The noodles were at first my least favourite element, being that I like them thick, but as I hit halfway through the bowl I realised that they were just right. Any thicker would have been overkill with everything else.
My friend had the standard Miso Tonkoku you can see above.
At 2am the spot offered an interesting mix of late night characters congregated around a dirty, run down kitchen square. Young guys rocking mohawkes, smoking and talking. A drunk salary man who let out a genuine cry of surprise upon being handed his bowl and an old couple that walked in and clearly knew what they were doing with their order.
Not the easiest place to get to but if you can, it's worth it.
PS: I couldn't finish it.