Kitakata is a Japanese city in the northern part of the Fukushima Prefecture, with a population of 50,000-60,000 people. Even if it's not as big as many Japanese cities, it is well known for it's
ramen that are different from the dishes of the other regions of the country.
The Kitakata ramen uses thick/curly noodles. They are served with a pork and
niboshi (dried sardines) broth. There are a lot of ramen restaurants in the city, in fact it is said that it has the highest ramen restaurant per habitant ratio of Japan. If you want to learn more about the niboshi dashi or about other kind of dashi, you can take a look in the
japanese ramen recipes section. Being able to make your own dashi is a very important part of making the ramen dish as it gives flavor to the meal and is, most of the time, a lot more healthy than the soup base that comes with instant noodles.
The kitakata ramen are very popular in many parts of Japan and starts to be known in some other countries. With a delicious dried sardines or pork soup broth, this gives great taste to the dish and you're sure to notice when you are eating a kitakata ramen!
Japanese ramen
