toshifumu
Extreme salt ramen with ginger and green onion boiled egg at Hitomi Kiyouemon
This day was the annual Setsubun festival at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine for the past few years, and for lunch, we went to Hitomi Kiyouemon in Furukimachi, Kamigyo-ku. It was a nostalgic area for my second son, who happened to be with me that day, as it is near his alma mater, Doshisha University's Shinmachi Campus. (By the way, it seems that a different restaurant was here during his time as a student.)
The menu is posted next to the entrance of the restaurant, and they use noodles from the long-established noodle shop, Teioku, in Kyoto. Teioku was the same as the noodles I had last year when I ate ayu ramen at Izumiya near the Nagara River in Kawaharamachi, Gifu.
There are three types of noodle menus: soy sauce, salt, and miso. We ordered soy sauce for my second son, miso for my wife, and salt for me. The owner fluently introduced us to the topping menu that is also listed separately, and we decided to add the ginger and green onion boiled egg for an additional 200 yen.
Soon, our bowls arrived. The salt ramen had a golden soup with grated sesame sprinkled on top, a true salt ramen. The miso ramen my wife ordered seemed to combine white miso and red miso, with the red miso dominating. The soup was delicious, with a base of Kyoto pure chicken bones combined with bonito, kelp, and other seafood, and seasoned with two types of natural salt and finished with wolfberry for an accent. It tasted a bit salty but was delicious.
The noodles were Teioku's noodles, with a sharp regular thickness and a chewy, curly texture. They were different from Kyoto udon, with a firm and chewy texture. The chashu was extremely delicious, made from Iga no Mochi pork simmered in tea and seasoned with burnt soy sauce. It was a new and delightful flavor. The chicken thigh chashu was also juicy and tasty.
The owner recommended the soft-boiled egg with ginger and green onion, a gentle and Kyoto-like delicacy. It was a delightful meal with a taste reminiscent of Kyoto.
It was a ramen experience with a Kyoto-like flavor.