Today, Ajisen Ramen has two branches in the Philippines – at the Paseo Center in Makati and at Libis in Quezon City. Like the country where it comes from, Ajisen at the Paseo Center – a former office building of IBM Philippines and now a haven of casual-dining restaurants catering to office people and nearby residents – is a study in both the past and the present. This is no traditional Japanese restaurant if you judge it by its looks. Rather, it is a contemporary styled resto with modern chairs from Italy and contemporary pendant lights. It is also one of the few restaurants in the building with views of the street outside.
But if you judge it by its food, you get a taste of ramen traditions which led Ajisen to expand from its beginnings in Kumamoto, Japan, to 300 branches all over the world. Yet, despite its remaining true to traditional cooking methods and ingredients, it also displays creativity in owning the cuisine as its own.
Cynthia says Ajisen is the only resto in Manila that imports ramen from Japan or perhaps one of the very few to do so. When we point out that some local restos claim to have imported ramen, she says that actually these are "imported" from Binondo.
Why is ramen so important anyway, does it alter the taste of the dish? "Yes it does. If you’re a real lover of ramen, you know immediately whether it’s good ramen or not."
Ramen is an egg-based noodle originally brought to Japan from China centuries ago. Today, there are ramen connoisseurs all over the world that scoff at "instant ramen" and insist that that’s not the way it’s best enjoyed. Their palette must be so used to ramen they know what’s the real deal and what’s not.
Ajisen in Manila follows the menu of the Ajisen chain with some local specialties. Cynthia and her partner, food consultant Annie Teh, trained in Japan for more than a month. It was, by any standard, a test of will as well. The ladies had to learn everything about the restaurant business, from washing plates and huge vats to making ramen and styling the plates. Cynthia relates with a laugh – and a sigh – that they would come home at night with their tired bodies begging for rest.
Did it occur to her at the time that it was easier to open a Jollibee branch instead? we ask jokingly.
Cynthia, a Hong Kong native married to a Filipino, just laughs. "In the end, Annie and I had a lot of fun because we learned everything."
Oh, the lengths one would go through for great ramen! But it’s all paid off, according to Cynthia. The restaurant gets not just lunch diners from nearby offices, but also Japanese expats (who like their ramen minimalist style – meaning with not a lot of ingredients on it) who live in Makati.
One of the measures of how a successful a restaurant is in a place like Paseo Center is whether they have customers even on weekends when the offices are closed. Yes, even on weekends Ajisen Ramen gets its share of ramen seekers.
Ajisen’s menu is divided into sections. The first part, of course, is the house specialty: Ramen dishes. By the way, in Japan, ramen is not considered a soup but an entire meal – and with good reason. A bowl of ramen is very filling what with toppings of pork or beef and vegetables. Kumamoto, Japan, where Ajisen Ramen was founded, is known for its soup stock made from simmered pork bones.
The house ramen, Ajisen ramen (P175), is topped with leeks, boiled eggs, barbecued pork, cabbage and fungus. Kon ramen (195) and yasai ramen (P195) are great for those who prefer vegetable ingredients.
With these dishes, you can create your own taste by substituting the noodle and soup base. For instance, you can order spicy ramen with its topping of pork and substitute the soup base with curry. In fact, curry-flavored ramen is a favorite as it gives the dish a flavor not traditionally found in Japanese fare.
Also on the bestsellers list is the torikatsu ramen (P195), which is deep-fried boneless chicken with leeks and cabbage, buta kakuni ramen (P155), tender pork, bean sprouts and leeks.
For light fare or side orders, there are the shiitake ebi (P105), stuffed shiitake mushrooms with special sauce; asparagus bacon (P95); enoki maki (P135), golden mushroom beef roll; and, of course, what I always order in a Japanese restaurant – agedashi tofu (P65).
Rice toppings or donburi dishes with Ajisen sauce include gyudon (P175), sliced beef with leeks and raw egg yolk; tendon (P185) or mixed tempura; and yakiniku don (P175), beef, leeks and onions.
Sushi and sashimi choices are just as many. If you can’t decide, get the sampler plates, just make sure that it has saba (mackerel) sashimi, which is really good. And then there’s the bento box (P120), which I think the Japanese invented for people who don’t want to be overwhelmed by so many choices.
A word of advice to Ajisen diners: Save room for dessert. You cannot not have the banana tempura (P115) if you’re there. It would be like going to Paris and not going to the Louvre. The banana tempura is a weird sort of dessert that promises something new – banana rolled in tempura breading and then fried – five pieces of these tempura surround a scoop of ice cream topped with cherry. The taste is strangely very good.
It’s a fitting ending to a meal that starts out as traditional.