Sponsored by Squarespace.
This is what it's like behind the counter at a family-owned Japanese ramen shop.
So today I'm in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and back with another "Behind the Counter" video.
I'm so excited for this one because this one is unique.
We're going inside a family-owned ramen shop that is fish-based.
I can't wait to take you inside, but like always, if you guys want to see what I'm doing on the daily, check out my Instagram account.
If you want to help support the channel, check out the Japan merch, and if you have any questions about Japan or your Japan travels, check out my Discord community.
That said, let me take you behind the counter.
So here we go. Coming in hot with another "Behind the Counter" video, this time at a local family-owned Japanese restaurant.
Menya Kaijin, the number one fish-based ramen shop in Shinjuku, Tokyo,
a highly competitive area in the ramen industry, but this mom-and-pop shop has found a way to always appear in the top ranking
with their beautiful umami-infused clear soup.
Luckily, the shop is located only a few minutes' walk from the JR Shinjuku Station, southeast exit.
Alright, so I'm just in front of the ramen shop, waiting for him right now.
Good morning!
This is the 'tencho,' a.k.a. shop manager, Endo-san.
What time do you usually come in?
His mother, who opened the shop fifteen years ago, is the owner.
I'm sure we'll meet her later on today.
Oh, you use a time card as well?
Why?
Makes sense.
Endo-san is usually the first one to arrive at the shop, so he performs all of the opening tasks.
Some of the ingredients are delivered before the opening, so he puts them away when he arrives.
Where are the noodles from?
Japanese ramen shops usually buy noodles from a noodles-specialty factory.
These noodles in particular have been blended from two types of flour and kneaded with charcoal-purified water,
and then aged at a low temperature to create a firm yet bouncy texture.
So, how much noodles do you go through a day?
[Music]
He usually has two more staff come in around 10 am so until then, he's all by himself.
First he prepares a soup sauce called "tare" in Japanese.
This tashi is the first part to making their signature tare and it's made from shiitake mushrooms, bonito and kombu.
He squeezes the shiitake one by one to extract as much of its umami as possible then cooks it slowly on low heat.
What's most important when making the tare sauce?
This is another ingredient for their delicious tare.
Damn! It seems like a whole lot of different processes going on to pull the umami from their seafood!
[Music]
Oh! He's cutting the green onions for the topping!
He said that they used to cut it by hand but since they need to cut so much now they move to a chopping machine.
So how long have you been working here?
What did you do before this?
That has nothing to do with ramen! Why are you making ramen then?
Which one pays better?
Apparently, he worked as a pharmaceutical chemist for seven years but the previous store manager got sick so he decided to take over this job.
I guess that's what family does for each other!
You guys get any days off?
Cool, what are you gonna do?
Do you have any hobbies?
Oh! The onion cutter is cleaned every single time it's used. Nice! Keeping it bling bling!
Do you get many foreign visitors?
Dope! They even got an english menu!
Is this the salt you use for the shio ramen soup?
the shop keeps their menu simple serving only one type of soup: tare aradaki shio ramen. It's a shio ramen that uses
different types of fish crafts based on
what they can get from the fish market
the day before. But what's today's soup?
When did you prepare this?
Who in your family works with you?
Are you married?
You have any kids?
Wow! He's still washing the green onions!
Oh! Another worker has arrived!
Where is that from?
Now he cuts the Japanese leeks for tomorrow's soup.
So how long have you been working here?
Wow! You've been here longer than endo-san!
While endo-san is working on the soup and toppings she prepares the side menu
heshiko onigiri.
What's that?
So heshiko is a mackarel
marinated in rice bran and it's mixed in with their onigiri.
Are you working here every day?
Damn! That's a lot of rice! In fact they
sell about a hundred on the weekdays and
more than 250 on the weekends. Apparently
the onigiri is heated before serving so
it must be squeezed firmly so it stays
together when it's grilled. Also the
onigiri is designed to be eaten with a
ramen soup after the noodles have been finished.
It's seasoned likely to pair with a umami enriched soup.
Oh! He's pouring the dashi soup into the scallop mix he was working on earlier!
The dashi for the tare soup sauce takes about half a day to make while the main soup is cooked for about 8-10 hours. So
the preparation for today's soup started
yesterday, and the soup he's working on
right now is for tomorrow.
What are you gonna do with that?
Awesome! They don't let any of that delicious umami go to waste in this shop.
[Music]
Now, the main soup prep.
it's interesting to see that they're able to use different fish every day while also crafting a consistent taste and flavor.
I suppose though that their soup often has thai and unego plus so maybe that helps with the consistency
Hot damn that smells good!
So the fish is grilled just before going into the pot to help maximize the flavor.
Oh man! The grilled Japanese leeks are also producing some of that smell!
[Music]
And there you go! By this time tomorrow this clear vat of water will be transformed into a pleasure pot of mouthwatering happiness.
Oh, one more person is here
Is that your mom?
Were you a student when your mom opened the store?
You must've eaten a lot of ramen here!
Wait, did you work part-time here?
Oh, that's how you met her?
Let's go talk to his mom
Nice to meet you!
So why did you start a ramen shop?
Even her grandparents owned a ramen shop and as a little girl she often ran around there, so opening her own shop was natural for her.
She says when she opened the store about 15 years ago there was nothing around and people considered the area as a very dark side
of Shinjuku. There was even an adult toy
shop on the first floor. Was it popular from the beginning?
I'm so glad that everyone loves your ramen now.
So I wanted to step outside real quick
and give a quick shout out to the
sponsor for this video Squarespace if
you don't already know Squarespace is
the number one way to build your online
presence in fact I use Squarespace for
my site Tokyo Zebra here are just some
of the reasons why I love using
Squarespace so much whether you're
starting your passion project or
building a business Squarespace has all
the tools to get it done while also
looking ultra sleek and professional at
the same time they support numerous
portfolios and gallery designs which you
can customize and even password protect
so the right people see your work use
its fully integrated blogging tools and
commenting features such as threaded
comments replies and likes to help
engage your community and my favorite
built-in analytics to see how your
visits unique visitors and page views
trend over time so go to squarespace.com
today for your free trial when you're
ready to launch go to squarespace.com
for example from tokyo and get 10
percent off your first domain or website
cool let's get back behind the counter
Oh! I have the same IKEA ziploc bag at home!
Now she prepares the toppings: shrimp balls and chicken balls. This batch was made the night before and part
of the prep is to scoop them into a ball
shape making 400 balls before the store
opens today.
Oh! There's the chicken balls! Looks so.... spherical!
Okay, she's boiling the shrimp and chicken balls now! The balls are coated with a
flour to help lock in the flavor and to
prevent its flavors from mixing in with
the soup. The shop with such an enormous
amount of effort to craft their soup
that they want their customers to enjoy the soup and its other ingredients separately.
What are you doing?
While the umami continues to build in the soup and the chicken balls come into
form endo-san prepares the yakumi aka
condiments for the ramen shiso, ginger, and yoga
[Music]
Huh, I guess it does look like needles
[Music]
Oh! They got more rice delivered! Is it delivered every day?
[Music]
Did covid affect your store any?
He says that a lot of customers are coming back but you lost a lot of workers during the past two years of the pandemic.
pandemics they don't have enough staff
to expand the business back to how it was
What's that for?
Makanai is a special meal only for workers and
apparently their makana here is ramen
how are you gonna eat it
Do you eat ramen everyday?
she says that because the shop uses
different fish the soup's flavor profile
changes along with the fish though she
enjoys tasting the soup every day to see
the differences
just before opening they start to grill
a few of the onigiri as it's calmly
ordered with a ramen which means their
early customers don't have to wait after
their order
[Music]
now they're open for business
are you all set?
it's okay do what you normally do so was
it good
oh here comes the customers
the first customer ordered the aradaki
show ramen
wow it's so fast to serve up to 400
customers a day the shop needs to be
quick and well prepared to minimize
serving times
[Music]
that's one of the first customers can I
ask you a question
do you come here often
why do you come here?
i guess you came to the right place
let's go talk to that guy too excuse me
can I ask you a question
you come here often
what do you like with the ramen here
as he takes ramen orders he also checks
on the soup throughout the day
[Music]
how long does a customer stay
are there any customers who stay super long?
so do you have a rule about staying
Can little kids come?
after the main lunch hour rush he
finally gets to eat his own lunch
how was the ramen
is it hot?
Don't you have AC?
so what have you learned the most about
making ramen
what about you
so from here on out they're busy
preparing the ramen and grilling onigiri
until the store closes
so that's another video in the books at
a japanese family-owned restaurant if
you want to visit this restaurant i'll
be sure to leave a link in the
description but come early especially on
the weekends as they sometimes have a
line at the door
there you go that's what it's like
behind the counter at a japanese ramen
shop if you guys like this video help me
out and hit that like button and if you
guys want to see more videos like this
or anything related to japan hit that
subscribe button in the bell button i'll
catch you guys in the next one