The weekend before last Yokohama held a Ramen Girls Festival. In the past ramen was a man's world, but this festival celebrated equal ramen rights for all. I guess! It was held outside beside
Yokohama's red brick warehouse. I will use just about any excuse to visit this area of Yokohama because I find it to be enchanting, especially at night:
As you may have inferred from the pictures I arrived in the late after noon and didn't leave until evening. This was because the festival was very busy and each ramen shop represented had lines of hungry customers. The first line I wanted to get in was for a different shop, but the men helping heard the crowd informed me that by the time I got to the ramen (roughly 2 hours) it might be sold out. I don't think this festival was properly organized as it may have been easier to sell tickets to each individual vendor from a ramen style machine, have a set number of tickets for the amount of food, and close the vendor's area when/if they sold out. This misfortune was actually a stroke of luck. The line I ended up in was for ソラノイロ Japanese Soup Noodle Free Style, chosen because of its colorful broth and unique toppings. I assume that to appeal to girls the festival chose shops that were supposed to appeal to women's traditionally assumed appetites. In short, women like vegetables...right?! Well I do, but I don't think it's because of something that stupid. After waiting about an hour and a half I got to turn in my festival tickets plus some extra cash to get all the toppings.
And it was well worth it:
Immediately I saw why this shop was calling itself Free Style. The ramen was topped with cherry tomatoes, sweet potato, a delicious egg, shredded cabbage, mizuna (water greens), cheese, barley, chashu (pork), and a sprinkle of black sesame. The best part was the surprise of the color of the noodles, a bright orange. Actually that wasn't the
best part as this ramen was all around delicious. The broth was a delicate tomato and carrot base and the toppings mixed well. I was surprised, but I actually really enjoyed the cheese!
What I liked about the ramen festival was that on the flyer each vendor represented had their shop details listed so that if you missed out on one or wanted to return to another you could easily visit. While I didn't get to visit the shop I would really like to in the future. Here is a
link to their site. After scanning the menu I want to return as soon as I can! 5/5
While I didn't visit their shop (located in Chiyoda between Hanzomon and Kojimachi stations) I will map it for you!
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