Tan-tan ramen 担々麺

Tan-tan ramen noodles were originally from China's Sichuan prefecture area where it is considered a 干面 (dry noodle with no soup). I put this Tan-tan ramen under the Japan group because the Japanese variety has departed quite significantly from the Chinese version.

Japanese Tan-tan noodles were imported to Japan in the 1980's, where it first became popular in Chinese restaurants in Tokyo. To make the ramen appeal more to Japanese the spiciness was significantly reduced, converted to a soup based ramen and overall portion size increased.

Tan-tan ramen soup is usually a pork bone/chicken based both blended with a creamy sesame sauce, it has the sourness of vinager and the spiciness from red chili peppers. The noodles are usually medium thickness straight or curly noodles. Toppings range from the standard Japanese cha-shu to the authentic Chinese ground pork, vegetables such as spinach and bean sprouts.

★★★★ 亜寿加 (Asuka) - Tokyo








★★★ 光麺 (Koumen) - Tokyo








★ 麻辣麺荘 (Ma-ra Mensou) - Tokyo