Tonkotsu ramen

Tonkotsu ramen is a ramen dish that originated in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture on the Kyushu island of Japan, and it is a specialty dish in Fukuoka and Kyushu. It was originally prepared as an affordable fast food for laborers at fish markets. Today, it is renowned for the significant time it can take to properly prepare the dish. The soup broth is based upon pork bones and other ingredients, which is typically boiled for several hours, and the dish is traditionally served with ramen noodles that are hard in the center and topped with sliced pork belly. In Fukuoka, Japan, tonkotsu ramen is referred to as Hakata ramen.

The soup broth for tonkotsu ramen is based upon pork bones, and "tonkotsu" means "pork bones" in Japanese. The soup broth is prepared by boiling pork bones in water for a significant amount of time, up to eight hours, and the broth is typically cloudy in appearance. Additional broth ingredients can include onion, garlic, spring onions, ginger, pork back fat, pig's trotters, oil and chicken carcasses. For service, cooked ramen noodles and slices of roasted or braised pork belly are added, and additional ingredients can include kombu, shoyu, chili bean paste, sesame seeds and others.

The traditional preparation method for the ramen noodles used in tonkotsu ramen is for the noodles to be hard in the center. Some ramen shops allow customers to select the level of doneness for the noodles, including futsu for regular or standard, barigane for very hard, barikata for al dente and yawamen for soft. Some restaurants also provide a second order of noodles if requested by the customer, in a system referred to as kaedama.

Ichiran is a Japanese restaurant chain that originated and is based in Fukuoka, Japan that specifically specializes upon tonkotsu ramen.Ippudo is a Japanese ramen restaurant chain based in Fukuoka that is well-known for its tonkotsu ramen, and has been described as "the most famous tonkotsu ramen shop in the country".

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