the ramen tour, stop #7: santouka ramen.

santouka ramen is located in the food court of mitsuwa marketplace in torrance. it is part of a chain of ramen shops in japan, serving hokkaido style ramen, and they have several locations in california. lucky for me! as it is by far one of my favorite ramen places in and around the home digs. my friend y and i, neither of us are very big on ramen (she likes it less than i do) and even she likes it, so i think that's saying something. my favorite ramen there currently is the miso chashu ramen, and of course i have to order the seasoned egg on the side.

there are several slices of yummy roasted pork, along with some menma (bamboo shoots), kamaboko (fish cake), kikurage (woodear mushrooms), and of course, negi (green onion). for me, the broth totally has that umami factor.



you can get shio (salt) broth, shoyu (soy sauce) broth , or miso (soybean paste) broth for your ramen. santouka uses a pork broth as a base for all of their ramen. they have two bases as the miso ramen uses a different pork broth base than the others.



of course, given that the miso chashu ramen is my current favorite at santouka, that's what i ordered. c ordered the shio ramen. the shio ramen is topped off with an umeboshi (salted plum). we barely made it there in time to order our ramen - although the marketplace is open until 8pm, most of the stalls in the food court close earlier, and we both learned that day that santouka takes their last order at 7:15pm.

there's no question that i will go back!

santouka ramen @ mitsuwa marketplace * 21515 western ave. * torrance, ca 90501