Ivan Ramen / アイバンラーメン

*A note before I begin. I did not take the above picture. I borrowed it from the internet as I had forgotten to take a picture of the shop from the outside. Sunday was our day off so we planned on taking a long walk. We decided we would walk from our apartment to Minami Karasuyama - where Ivan Ramen is located. It's probably the only ramen shop in Tokyo run by an American. It would be about 3km walk one-way. We would have lunch, then walk back home. But it didn't quite turn out that way. Unlike my father who likes to get from point A to point B in the shortest time possible, we meandered on our way to Ivan's. So, what should have been a 3km walk, turned out to be about a 5km walk instead. And the actual area that Ivan Ramen is located at is Minami Karasuyama, the nearest train station being Roka Park on the Keio Line. It took us almost two hours to get there.　Outside the shop is a poster titled Frequently Asked Questions about Ivan Ramen.



*始まる前に。上記の写真私が撮ってなかった。外から写真を撮るのを忘れてネットで借りた物です。

日曜日は私と美香子の公休日で散歩に出かけた。目的地は南烏山にあるアイバンラーメンの店です。東京で唯一アメリカ人がやってるラーメン屋と思います。片道で３キロ位の距離です。でも、僕のお父さんは目的地Aから目的地Bまで一番短くて、一番早い方法を考える。私はその考えと違って、のんびり行くのが楽しい。だから３キロの散歩が多分５キロ位になった。本当の場所は南烏山で一番近い駅は京王線の芦花公園駅。













I'm posting the poster for the benefit of my Japanese friends and readers (even though it would be quicker just to check out Ivan Ramen's website (http://www.ivanramen.com/) I'm sure my sister will check it out to and add it to her list of places she'll want me and Mikako to take her.

店で貼ってあるポスターはアイバンラーメンでよくある質問。アメリカ人の友達の為に英語で訳してあげた。


For my American friends and readers, I shall provide the translation of the poster in English.




Q1. What does the "Ivan" in Ivan Ramen stand for?
A1. That's my name, please call me Ivan. I'm from New York. I was a chef in New York.


Q2. Why did you start a ramen shop?
A2. When I was in college I watched the movie "Tanpopo" and decided that I wanted to run my own ramen shop in Tokyo.


Q3. How do you make your ramen?
A3. I use a double soup with a chicken and fish based broth. I've also experimented with different vegetables and sauce until I was satified with the flavor. I also use my own salt and soy sauce.


Q4. What's special about Ivan Ramen?
A4. Everything is made from scratch, including our noodles. Ivan takes a lot of time in making preparations before serving our ramen.


Q5. What's different about Ivan Ramen compared to other ramen shops?
A5. Ivan is run by an American. Ivan serves 3 different rice dishes featuring pork, roasted tomatoes, and green onions. You can't get a delicious serving of ice cream at other ramen shops.


And once we reached our destination, we were surprised to see a long line of people waiting to get in. Here's where I realized I've become more Japanese than I thought. Why? Because we didn't hesitate to stand in line and wait for over a half-hour to eat some Ivan ramen. And what did we order. Well, just check it out below.

で、目的地に着いたら、行列があってびっくりした。待ち時間は３０分以上だった。俺も結構日本人になったと思うのは、平気であの行列に並んだ！何を注文した？下記に見て。

Ivan Ramen serves something called Mazemen which is ramen with thin noodles and just nominal amount of broth. I had ordered the Zenbu nose spicy red chili-men. Zenbu means everything which includes char-shu, poached egg, onions, red peppers, and a special sauce. This was quite delicious!

アイバンラーメンのメニューにのってるのはラーメンだけじゃない。まぜめんとういう物もある。まぜめんは細麺と少量のつゆ。私が注文したのは全部のせスパイシチリ麺。とっても美味しい！！



Mikako also ordered a mazemen. Hers was a roast garlic char-shu men. I had a couple of bites of this too, and oh, and this also is quite delicious!!

美香子もまぜめんを注文した。これはローストガーリックチャシュ麺。俺も一口位食べましたよ。わー、これもめちゃ美味しい！！

We're definitely coming back to this ramen shop.

このラーメン屋はまた必ず行きます！