Dark shoyu ramen with tamari

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1. [Menya Berabou (麺や べらぼう)](https://youtu.be/TalFsXXRn9E) is a niboshi ramen specialty shop in Iidabashi, one of the central districts of Tokyo. The shop is located within the Sakura Terrace shopping mall right next to Iidabashi station. A shopping mall is a quite unusual place for a good ramen shop, yet here we are.

   The ramen at Menya Berabou uses a niboshi broth base with either a light shoyu seasoning or a dark and strong tamari shoyu seasoning. The light one is combined with thin and straight low hydration noodles, the tamari one with temomi noodles. I went for the tamari shoyu option, which gave it the expected smoky and almost bbq-ish notes one would expect from a tamari heavy seasoning. Besides the ramen, Menya Berabou also serves mazesoba style mixing ramen, which are also worth trying from what I have heard.

   The toppings at Berabou are top notch in my opinion and quite plentiful if you go for the chashu and wantan option. This bowl definitely delivers for 1400 Yen and you will walk out quite full if you order it. If you are still looking at more bowls for the day, I recommend getting the regular bowl for just 950 Yen, which also comes with wantan and chashu, but just not as much.
   From looking at the chashu, you would not expect it to be perfectly tender. I was really really surprised, there is some awesome sous vide magic at work here. The wantan had really nice dough flaps and a quite dense filling. The pairing with some dried frizzy nori and red onions works pretty well for this bowl and gives every bite a bit of a different flavor.

   If you would like to see a bit more of the shop and this bowl, check out this 5 minute video: https://youtu.be/TalFsXXRn9E