Twirls of ramen with a Chinese twist
Shisen Ramen may be the only Sichuan-style Japanese noodle shop in the Southland. Hold on -- Japanese noodles in the style of Sichuan, China?
Centuries ago, Chinese laborers working at the Yokohama docks introduced lo mein to Japan, and over the years Japanese cooks adopted ramen to their tastes. If you go to Japan, you can follow the history at the Shin Yokohama Ramen Museum, a combination museum, theme park and shrine dedicated to these beloved noodles. The museum has eight ramen shops serving regional variations from the country’s 100,000 ramen shops.
In Los Angeles, ramen’s popularity soared in the early ‘80s, when Japanese ramen chains arrived. And scores of independent shops opened after “Tampopo,” a ramen shop comedy, was a surprise hit movie in 1987.
But now it seems ramen shops need a twist to survive, as well as excellent food. Shisen Ramen scores on both counts as a Sichuan-inspired ramen house (“Shisen” is the Japanese pronunciation of “Sichuan”) making light, springy ramen of impeccable quality.
“Original noodle shipped directly from Kyoto, Japan,” the menu proudly states. And boy, is the kitchen persnickety about its preparation. The takeout menu does not even offer noodles in soup. A menu note explains: “We do not recommend doggie bags for ramen for quality purposes.” The noodles would absorb too much broth and become soggy, which, of course, is poor ramen form.
Shisen Ramen is a small, modest place that could easily escape notice in its mini-mall location. But it attracts droves of shoppers from the gargantuan Mitsuwa Japanese supermarket complex nearby on Western Avenue.
A long counter (which looks as if it once was a sushi bar) snakes around a small serving area, and tables are wedged into several corners. A tiny bar displays a variety of sakes, wines and beers, including Kirin draft by the pitcher or glass.
There’s a printed menu, but the entire dining room is papered with additions to it, written in both English and Japanese, and these specials are well worth exploring.
As usual at a ramen shop, ramen soups come in bowls the size of a bathroom sink, submerged in a red broth that’s heady with ginger and spiked with garlic and chile.
Forget everything you know about the Sichuan use of red pepper; the chile level will be moderate, to the Japanese taste, unless you request your order “very spicy.”
The toppings run from roasted cha siu pork or mixed seafood with fresh asahi clams to Japanese-style fried chicken chunks. I recommend shisen paiko ramen with roasted pork fried in curry spices, added to the already well-spiced broth. Equally good is the house special, hanwari ramen, a hybrid of spicy pork broth, soy broth and a Chinese-style roast pork topping. Jya-jya men, another of the best plates, comes at room temperature, arranged like a composed salad with pork, vegetable garnishes and a peppery bean sauce to mix in yourself.
It’s hard to go wrong with anything here. Among the “small plates,” some of the best are the stir-fried clams with chile, a nicely turned ma po tofu smothered in a ground pork-chile-garlic sauce and 1,000-year-old egg. The white of the last (called by its Japanese name, petan, on the menu) looks like a translucent, semi-precious jet-black stone, and the yolk tastes vaguely like soft cheese. This version seems somehow more refined than the preserved eggs served in funky Chinese congee houses.
Desserts are not Shisen Ramen’s strong point. A mango pudding is merely so-so. But you might give the wonderfully eccentric coconut dessert a try. Composed of little jelly squares floating in a rich, very coconut-y cream with a dab of red bean paste, it’s like a richer version of a boba drink in a bowl.
Viewed a different way, it’s a lightened Japanese version of those creamy Thai coconut desserts, another of Japan’s evolving edibles, just like ramen.
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Shisen Ramen
Location: 1730 W. Sepulveda Blvd., No. 6, Torrance, (310) 534-1698.
Price: Ramen dishes, $5.20 to $7.65; small plates, $2.80 to $6.80; desserts, $3.25.
Best dishes: Shisen paiko ramen, shisen hanwari ramen, jya-jya men, seafood shisen ramen, ma po tofu, ebi chile (shrimp in chile sauce).
Details: Open 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Friday; 24 hours Saturday; 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Beer, wine and sake. Parking lot. All major cards ($20 minimum).
