Traditional Japanese Noodle Soup with shiitake mushroom. egg. sliced beef and greens served in ceramic bowl with wooden chopsticks and white spoon on cloth. Dark wooden background. Flat lay. space.. (Photo by: Natasha Breen/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Food - Drink
Tokyo Vs. Sapporo Ramen: What's The Difference?
By RYAN CASHMAN
Tokyo, Japan's capital, is a famous bustling city, while Sapporo is a smaller, slower-paced city in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island. One thing that these very different cities have in common is that their residents cook and eat plenty of ramen, but Tokyo-style ramen is still quite different from Sapporo-style ramen.
Tokyo opened its first ramen shop in 1910, before Sapporo caught wind of the popular noodle soup. Tokyo ramen broths have a medium body and a base of pork, chicken, or dashi, flavored with shoyu (soy sauce) and mixed with curly, wide noodles; it shares some of these traits with Yokohama ramen, its predecessor and inspiration.
Meanwhile, Sapporo is the birthplace of miso ramen, which gained popularity in the 1960s; today, miso is a major category of ramen, alongside shio (salt) and shoyu. Sapporo miso ramen contains thick noodles in a pork, chicken, or seafood broth, topped with hearty add-ons like cabbage, ground pork, bean sprouts, soft-boiled eggs, and sweet corn.