We’ve seen plenty of culinary oddities come out of Japan over the years from cat wine to Burger King’s “Black Burger.” Well, it’s time to add yet another unique dish to the list - chocolate ramen (Tsuke Ghana) that was released ahead of Valentine’s Day at a Tokyo restaurant.
Related Articles:
- Wine for Cats now Available in Japan (Yes, Really)
- Burger King Unleashes "Black Burger" On Japan
- Lotteria Announces the Ramen Burger
This isn’t the first time that Menya Musashi has put a twist on one of Japan’s most popular dishes, offering up a wildly popular matcha green tea ramen last year, according to Rocket News 24 writer Kay who sampled the dish.
The chocolate version of the dish saw the noodles and soup served in separate bowls (known as tsukemen-style) with the latter filled with a mix of ramen stock and melted dark chocolate.
At 880 yen (US$7.33) it looks like the dish was a value as it was not only packed with chocolate, but pickled peppers, radish and gobo (burdock), yuzu citrus jam, some mint, basil and stir-fried ground pork.
Kay came away impressed with the dish.
“In fact, we were quite impressed with how we could clearly taste the chocolate in the soup, but it also had enough character to stand on its own as a rich soup and not just a sweet sauce for the noodles. Together with the ramen noodles and the ground pork flavored withtianmianjiang sweet bean paste, we thought it was a case of Japanese, western and Chinese tastes coming together in quite a delightful way.”
Unfortunately, the restaurant stopped offering the dish on February 15 but Kay postulated that the dish might reappear next year.
Chocolate phở anyone?
