#paitan

麺ZINさいとう（Saito）「和牛白湯タンメン」

✔️Store name / Menu

✔️Topping : チャー牛

✔️Side Menu : サキホコレライス

The newest ramen shop to open in Tokyo, Tsukasa is already generating a ton of buzz for an unusual ingredient which they use to add extra umami to their already incredible paitan chicken soup...

Tsukasa opened their doors in early January in Roppongi, the popular entertainment district in Tokyo, which is quite apparent as you approach the restaurant and feel the booming base of the club next door rattle your bones. It’s a modern 20-seat shop located about 400 meters from Roppongi Crossing...

The restaurant’s full name is actually “War of Noodles Tsukasa”, and while I’m not privy to the details of where the battle lines are being drawn, and against whom the fight is bring fought against, here’s a look at the kitchen where the war is being waged from...

I first got wind of Tsukasa from Brian MacDuckston over at Ramen Adventures, who posted pics from their soft opening and told the story of how in researching recipes for this new shop, the owner, Tsukasa-san, ate over 1000 bowls of ramen last year! (You can see all those bowls documented over on Instagram at @tsukasan777.)

At the moment, or at least when I visited two weeks ago, Tsukasa was serving only one style of ramen, a thick, creamy “paitan”, where the soup is made from chicken...

However, no matter how much flavor he could coax out of the bones, no matter how rich he could get his soup, Tsukasa-san still felt his paitan could use a little extra punch. So taking into account everything he learned while consuming those 100 bowls of ramen, he decided the flavor bomb his ramen needed was... Grana Padano cheese!

So when your bowl hits the counter, and you’re dying to dig in, you still need to wait as the server goes back and gets the grater and makes it rain...

The cheese instantly melts as it hits the piping hot chicken soup. Now putting cheese in ramen is not something new; Tsukumo has been grating blocks of Hokkaido cheese into their bowls for a while now. But given the neutrality of the cheese they use, it’s really done more for the texture, to have it stick to the noodles as you slurp, rather than for the taste. Here, the Grana Padano that Tsukasa adds is a deliberate choice made to bring that sharp nuttiness of the cheese into play to compliment his broth...

They don’t pile on the cheese here either, it’s not done for shock value; it’s used sparingly, adding a layer to about half the bowl, which you’re encouraged to mix into the soup to achieve the desired balance of flavor. This way the texture is barely detectable as you start slurping, coating your noodles along with the broth, rather than sticking to them, and adding a nice pungency to the paitan...

The ramen here at Tsukasa is quite unique, the cheese used as an ingredient, not as a gimmick. Make no mistake, this is a solid, flavorful bowl of noodles.

Whatever noodle war it is that Tsukasa is fighting, he’s fired a strong opening salvo here in Roppongi!

TSUKASA

5-5-1 Roppongi, B1

Tokyo, Minato-ku

自然派らぁ麵 くれしづき（Kureshizuki）「黒白湯らぁ麺」

✔️Store name / Menu