Japanese ramen: Tauranga's Ramen Chidori keeps it authentic and simple

The Kumamoto special ($13.50, named for Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture), its creamy base enlivened by lashings of pink pickled ginger and spattered with black garlic oil. Photo / Amanda Saxton

Amanda Saxton chronicles the culinary landscape of small traditional restaurants, where characters, culture and community are front and centre. This week: Ramen Chidori, in Tauranga.

A good bowl of ramen is so restorative. Broth nourishes weary bones, steam soothes a furrowed brow. If you're in Tauranga, the place to reanimate via noodle soup is Ramen Chidori. A basic bowlful costs just $11.50.

This unassuming Japanese eatery is a sanctum of sorts. A respite from the road cones, fashion grannies, and ultra-tanned Ubermenschen endemic to Tauranga. Step through the door and be greeted by an eager "irasshaimase!" The outside world obscures behind large stickers across the street-side window, and there's just the right amount of Japanese kitsch to make the place feel transportive instead of cluttered. Jolly Japanese pop music plays softly. There are bright paper kites, a framed poster of what I think is the torii gate of Miyajima, geisha dolls in glass cases, and noren (those cheerful flag-like panels often hanging inside Japanese restaurants).

On one wall, a trio of wooden signs read: "Keep it Simple", "Ideas for Life", and "Next is Ramen". I don't really understand what they mean. Maybe that ramen is a good idea for your next meal? If so, this is true. And it is simple, from a customer's perspective. As Chidori's owner, Essie Park, says, a bowl of ramen is cheaper, comes faster, is healthier, and tastes better than a Big Mac combo.

Authentic ramen is an elaborate dish to cook, however. Forty-eight-year-old Park swears by a good broth. One that's been simmered till it shimmers with fats extracted from either chicken or pork bones. It takes at least 12 hours. Braising rolled-up pork belly – called cashu – is another lengthy process. As is marinating eggs boiled to a just-right consistency. Park doesn't make wheat noodles on-site but buys them fresh from a Japanese specialty store. These firm, straight and slightly chewy noodles are a far cry from any crimped and flaccid interpretation slurped from a styrofoam cup.

Pork cashu, bamboo shoots, spring onions, and leeks are standard soup accoutrements at Chidori. I ordered the Kumamoto special ($13.50, named for Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture), its creamy base enlivened by lashings of pink pickled ginger and spattered with black garlic oil. If this bowl of ramen were a dog, it'd be a dalmatian with its tongue out – I couldn't help but think as I leaned over to inhale the soothing fragrant vapours.

I ordered the most vibrant drink on the menu, too. A "cream melon soda" ($6.50) that looks like a radioactive spider. Lurid green liquid of unfathomable flavour (not melon), topped with vanilla icecream and a maraschino cherry. Not a natural companion to ramen, perhaps, but never mind. It was very beautiful.

Essie Park is not Japanese, but has worked in Japanese restaurants since 2002, when she escaped Korea's traffic jams and population density by migrating to New Zealand. She first settled in Auckland but when Auckland's problems started feeling uncannily like Korea's, Park moved to Tauranga. That was almost nine years ago. She's owned Ramen Chidori for two.

Japanese restaurants run by Koreans are, in fact, incredibly common the world over. The theory behind the phenomenon is two-fold. Firstly, Japanese cuisine is widely known, hugely popular, and practically ubiquitous. Korean cuisine – a little more niche with its hot, hot flavours, fermentation, and finicky side dishes – is not. You see it in New Zealand: although Korean restaurants aren't that hard to find in our big cities, sushi joints pop up even in places otherwise reliant on a Bakehouse Cafe and gas station for out-of-the-home dining. Secondly, a lot more Koreans leave Korea than Japanese leave Japan. Again, it happens here: there are twice as many Koreans in New Zealand as Japanese, according to the 2018 census.

Basically, if you're in the hospo industry, it's relatively easy to find a Japanese restaurant and get work. And if you're wondering what sort of restaurant to operate . . . well, there's demonstrable demand for Japanese food. That's been Park's experience. And she's doing a splendid job with Ramen Chidori.

The eatery is widely beloved. It has a 4.8-star rating on Google, with almost 400 reviews. Many reviewers claiming to be au fait with Japanese cuisine declare it may be New Zealand's best ramen shop. I ask Park for the secret to her success. "I think it is because my staff are all very kind, my food is honest, and my prices are low."

RAMEN CHIDORI
130 Devonport Rd, Tauranga
Open 11.30am-3pm and 5pm-10pm Monday to Saturday