| Obviously, Japan has been in "Ramen boom" in the last several
years. During this period, ramen's categories, which used to be clearly
divided as "shoyu", "miso", "shio", and "tonkotsu",
have been complicated with introduction of various ramen styles featuring
regional tastes all over Japan. After the wave of digging out the under-rated regional ramens, the spotlight has moved to specific ramen chefs. Mass medium vigorously introduced individual chefs naming them as "charisma ramen chef" and sometimes describing them as "fiend of Ramen". Among them, there has appeared a youngster who is enjoying the title "genius ramen chef" going over thousands of more experienced chefs. He is Mr. Shigetoshi Nakamura at the age of 24, the founder & chef of Nakamuraya. |
 Namamuraya locates near Kouza-shibuya station in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa. Within the quiet town with nothing else characterizing itself, the long queue of people waiting for the opening hour of Nakamuraya looks queer to those who do not know the reason. It has the episode that as more customers than the shop could provide a day gathered before the opening hour, some unlucky ones could not get fed even though they came on time. |
 My memo described Ramen at Nakamuraya as "subtle and delicate"
but at the same time "flavorful" enough to get people into the
habit of it. Its soup is cooked to get most out of carefully selected ingredients
and its fine noodles best match the soup. But the regulars of that shop
(my ramen friends) would claim that ramen at Nakamuraya has been progressing
day by day and the past memo is already out of use. In fact Mr. Nakamura
has been introducing new menu periodically, and enhancing his reputation
even higher.The ordering system here is nothing special, but waiting in line till being led to seat, ordering what you like, and paying for what you have eaten. That's it! |
 Though it is not sure whether the reason is to shorten the waiting line
or not, Mr. Nakamura opened his second shop, Zund Bar, in 2001. Along with
the same type of Ramen as of Nakamuraya, he introduced a completely new
items in the menu, desserts! They are quite authentic since a patisserie devoting for them is stationed. As far as I know, there is no other ramen
shop which is with a professional patisserie. |
 Fujisawa where Nakamuraya locates is far enough from central Tokyo. But
his new shop locates even farther and in a more rural area, Nanasawa hot
springs in Atsugi, Kanagawa. I did not realize why he selected this location
at first. Later it turned out this is an ideal location for young couples'
destination of date. Magneted by a hansome-looking chef (brother of Mr.
Nakamura) and attractive sweets, girls would drag out their boy friends
to this ramen shop. Mr. Nakamura is called a genius ramen chef because he has reached to provide highest qualitied ramen by himself in a few month since he returned from US where he stayed for college. But he seems to be talented in marketing, too. (BON, 2002.1.31) |
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