When you think of Fukushima ramen, the Kitakata area springs to mind first, famous for its pork/niboshi broth and thick/flat noodles. However, those not venturing to the north-west of the prefecture can still find good ramen elsewhere – with Fukushima City itself home to a few secrets to discover. On a recent tour of the Shimogo and Aizu-Wakamatsu region, my homeward journey took me through the capital allowing me to try one of their local staples.
Whilst waiting to catch a glimpse of the summer's Waraji Festival before returning to Tokyo, we took a late lunch at Ishikari Ramen (らーめん石狩). Ramen always draws me to a place, but I was actually primarily here for the 'enban', or disc-shaped, gyoza, a local specialty unique to Fukushima City.
The gyoza dumplings are circularly arranged, cooked then served together in one giant serving. It's a visual spectacle, but the crispy dumplings taste great too, and go so perfectly with beer. This might explain why enban gyoza places typically open in the evenings only – with my tight schedule, that meant visiting Ishikari which bucks the trend and opens at 11am anyway.
Ishikari offers portions of 10, 20, 30 or 50 gyoza dumplings. As a group of 4 we took on 50 (3,000 yen) – which still felt like a colossal undertaking alongside a bowl of ramen too:
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Of course, the ramen here was impressive too – but like the gyoza, a lot to get through and reminiscent of your average bowl at Jiro, without too much of a distinctive signature selling point for me. I tried the Ishikari Karami Miso Ramen (900 yen), which is the store's most popular bowl, with its homemade spicy sauce and plenty of veg.
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Enban gyoza shops have popped up all over the central area – if staying overnight, you might have time to try the most famous ones including: Manpuku (満腹) (allegedly the home of Fukushima gyoza), Kawatori (川鳥), Koharu (こはる) and Gyoza no Terui (餃子の照井).