Tsukemen @ Houten Shokudo, Nishijin, Fukuoka

 

The hunt for the ultimate bowl continues. And seeing that tsukemen has not made an appearance in a long while, it is the orpentune time to address this. Which is where Houten Shokudo comes in. The sister branch to the infamous Houten Honke, in Nakasu, I stumbled upon this on the way to meet a friend. As I had yet to have lunch at the time, it was such good timing for me to get my noodle game on. 

Welcome to Nishijin. 

Full and frank disclosure, I have been to Houten Honke before. however, it was a few years ago and I lost the files which would have been the base of a possible blog post. As such, this post also serves as a redemption arc of sorts for me. With that out of the way, let's get straight to the noodles. 

Look at the menu! Not your typical ramen shop from Fukuoka, that is for sure. 

The place serves a variety of interesting noodle dishes, such as spicy champon to motsu soba. And of course, they do have the classic tonkotsu. Although they are not what you would associate with the Fukuoka eating scene, they seem to be the key star makers of the shop and the other one in Nakasu. In fact, I had the motsu soba before, which I found very rich and satisfying. Looking to replicate this experience, although via a different route, I got myself the tsukemen. 

Oh baby!

The food arrived rather quickly as it was still pretty early in the afternoon at the time. The serving method is what you would get in a typical tsukemen experience. A large bowl of noodles with some toppings and a smaller bowl which has been loaded with fortified broth. Without much thought I cleared the toppings first so it would be easier for me to access those golden strands. 

An amazing shine

The toppings consisted of quail eggs, braised pork belly cubes, and menma bamboo shoots. Rather typical noodle toppings, sans the eggs. Although they seem pretty typical, I rather enjoyed them. Also, if you would like, you can elevate the flavour spectrum by dipping them into the thick broth before walloping them down. 

So rich...

Speaking of the broth, it was very well done. It was very rich, but not glue-like. The flavour seems to consist of fortified soy sauce, with a combination of braised pork bones, and a lot of garlic. The garlic aroma is so strong, I might scare away vampires. However, having a strong broth is good, as the noodles that were used to dip into them are meant to be a little bland, so as to not overpower such a flavourful nectar. 

What a slurping experience. 

Within minutes, this went down faster than a speeding bullet. The noodles were chewy but very easy to bite into, the broth had a very nice mouthfeel, and everything just combined easily which lead to a relatively satisfying slurping experience. So, although this place does has a lot of hype on social media, it justifies the hype it gets. This bowl was pretty modest price wise too, standing at 790 yen. 

Front of the house. 

So if you are somehow in this side of town, and you want to have a noodle experience that is not tonkotsu, then this is the place to be. I might even make a revisit to try the other interesting varieties that they have, as they are far more interesting that the classic white bone broth this side of Japan is famous for. Do not get me wrong, I enjoy tonkotsu. However, they are overrepresented and it is just fair for all types of ramen varieties to get the shout out they deserve. So if this has caught your attention, then the address is as follows:

5 Chome-1-16 Nishijin, Sawara Ward, Fukuoka, 814-0002