Japan's tsukemen-style ramen delicacy returns
This Valentines Day, have a bowl of chocolate ramen noodles in Tokyo.
Celebrating Valentines Day with chocolate is nothing new. Although scientifically not an aphrodisiac, sending chocolates to your loved one is still regarded as a romantic gesture. This year, you can now combine your love for ramen with your love for chocolate to embrace the most amorous day of the year.
According to RocketNews24, the bizarre combo is available during the first two weeks of February by ramen restaurant Menya Musashi but changes slightly each year. This year, the chocolate-based ramen is called Tsuke Ghana 2017 in tsukemen-style, meaning the dish comes in two bowls. One bowl is filled with noodles and toppings whilst the other is filled in a dipping broth that contains more than one bar of Ghana chocolate. Greens, chashu pork, a peice of chocolate and chocolate powder-foie gras balls with a chocolate center are added too – giving diners a triple dose of chocolate
Ghana chocolate is surprisingly not actually from the African country of Ghana, the leading exporter of cocoa, but is instead created by Asian candymaker Lotte.
The Tsuke Ghana 2017, priced at 1,080 yen (US$9.30), actually gives diners a triple dose of chocolate.
RocketNews24 went down to Menya Musashi’s Shinjuku branch to try the Tsuke Ghana. ” It was easier for our brains to think of it as a small bowl of hot cocoa than ramen broth,” Casey Baseel writes. “Hot cocoa being an almost universally loved beverage, we wouldn’t say it tastes bad. It just doesn’t taste anything like what most people would imagine when they think of ramen broth.”
“The other ingredients are also of an impressively high quality, and you could actually eat them by themselves, with no sauce, if you’re not in the mood to make your entire meal taste like a dessert.”
If you’re in Tokyo, make sure you try the limited-time-only chocolate ramen. The dish can only be found in Menya Musashi’s Shinjuku, Hamamatsucho and Shibaura locations until 14 February. Only 20 bowls are offered per day, so get down there quick!
Restaurant information
Menya Musashi (Shinjuku branch) / 麺屋武蔵（新宿総本店）
Address: Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Nishi Shinjuku, 7-2-6, K1 Building 1st floor
東京都新宿区西新宿7-2-6 K-1ビル1階
Open 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m.
Website