This one came from Shinichi over at Ramen Mania, a new monthly subscription box you can check out! They have special regional Japanese ramen varieties – good stuff so far! Thanks! So today it’s Hakata tonkotsu. So, what’s tonkotsu? Wikipedia, if you please:

Tonkotsu (豚骨, “pork bone”; not to be confused with tonkatsu) ramen usually has a cloudy white colored broth. It is similar to the Chinese baitang (白湯) and has a thick broth made from boiling pork bones, fat, and collagen over high heat for many hours, which suffuses the broth with a hearty pork flavor and a creamy consistency that rivals milk, melted butter or gravy (depending on the shop). Most shops, but not all, blend this pork broth with a small amount of chicken and vegetable stock and/or soy sauce. The noodles are thin and straight, and it is often served with beni shoga (pickled ginger). In recent years the latest trend in tonkotsu toppings ismāyu (sesame oil), a blackish, aromatic oil made from either charred crushed garlic or Sesame seeds. It is a specialty of Kyushu, particularly Hakata-ku, Fukuoka (hence sometimes called “Hakata ramen”).

Super-duper! Let’s have a look!

I should also mention – went to Uwajimaya in Bellevue today to get some narutomaki and scope out some new bowls – and delivered this guy some noodles! Check out Loafy Molasses’ YouTube channel – he’s a big noodle fan too, and work in this Asian food supermarket!

Here’s the back of the package (click image to enlarge). Probably contains pork and fish. To prepare, add noodles into 500ml boiling water and cook for 2miniutes. To make the broth, add contents of sachet to 270ml boiling water and stir. Drain noodles and put in bowl then cover with broth. Enjoy!

The noodle block.

The soup base sachet.

A thick and milky liquid base.

Finished (click image to enlarge). Added pork, hard boiled egg, spring onion, narutomaki and ito togarashi. The noodles are really good – a thin and round noodle with a very firm chew and fresh embodiment; your get a ‘fresh made’ kind of flavor. The broth is very good – rich and creamy tonkotsu with strong pork flavor. About the best tonkotsu I’ve tried. 5.0 out of 5.0 stars.  JAN bar code 4974942025031.

Here’s a Japanese book – I think it has something to do with tonkotsu…

A video about Hakata Tonkotsu.