Have you ever eaten a bowl of ramen, and towards the end, not liking the noodles getting too mushy and the broth too cold?
If you have, you need to come to this place - Fujiyama GoGo (the number 5 is pronounced go in Japanese, hence the upbeat sounding GoGo.) This chain originated from Nayoga, Japan and has about 50 stores world wide.
Walking in, it looks just like any ramen place. On closer inspection, you'll notice that there are built in hot stoves on the tables. You may wonder, did I walk into a shabu shabu shop by mistake?
Fujiyama specializes in tsukemen, where the broth is served in a separate bowl. You can keep the broth piping hot on the stove, which is electro-magnetic and only works when the iron pot is placed directly on top, keeping customers from melting their plastic bowls and burning the place down. You pick up a few strands of noodles, give it a quick bath in the broth and slurp it up. Around the store are posters educating customers how to eat the ramen. You can order regular ramen too, if you prefer, but tsukemen is what Fujiyama specializes in.
I totally love the concept. It's a little bit more work, but the noodles kept its bounce and chewiness. The soup was bubbling merrily like lava. In fact, I almost burned my lips with the noodles. I can't wait to try it in the winter time!
As the broth is intended for dipping, it is richer and thicker than your average noodle soup. Well, I did have a choice to order the thickness of the soup, but I figure why pay the same price for a watered down version? Since I like sipping the soup (I most certainly have high tolerence of MSG...) in the future I'll get the lighter broth (tonkotsu mixed with fish broth) instead.
If you like, towards the end, when you finish the noodle, you can ask them to bring you some rice and cheese. Add it to the broth and you get a cheesy risotto style of concoction. Which sounds delicious but I was too full, so have to wait for next time. read more