Super Sized Vegetable Ramen at Yamaki in Tomiura

There is a really popular ramen shop near the 7-11 in Tomiura called "Ramen Yamaki".  This place always has a line after 12:00 noon, so my coworkers Nyanko-Sensei, Sugar, and I dashed out the door and got there a little early so I could try their famed vegetable ramen.

From the outside....

... on the inside. The shop isn't very big, but there is another room with a few tables around the corner to the right.

My coworkers order chashu (char siu, roasted pork) as an appetizer. The pork was thick and meaty and the sauce was just a little spicy.  The crisp strings of onion matched well with the slightly oily meat.

We also had gyoza.  They were nice and crisp on the bottom and soft on the tops.  I recall the gyoza being fairly good, but I only ate one because I wanted to save space in my stomach for what was to come...

This is my order - the yasai ramen, or vegetable ramen.  Even though the veggies are piled up over the bowl, this is the normal sized portion.  It's always like this.

The stir fried vegetable mix mainly consists of cabbage and bean sprouts, but also contains onion, carrot, those black Chinese mushrooms, Chinese chives, and pork. The veggies were very lightly seasoned, but nice and crisp.

You can also chose the soup base for your ramen.  I chose the soy sauce based soup since I figured it would be lighter than a miso base.  Since we only have 1 hour for lunch, I decided to start right away.

I think I spent a good 3 of those minutes trying to find the noodles under all of these vegetables. I recommend ordering your noodles a bit undercooked (katame) because they're going to soften up in the broth.

Sugar got the miso ramen. I've had it before - good and filling.  I couldn't finish my miso ramen last time, so what on earth was I thinking when I ordered the vegetable ramen?!?

Nyanko-Sensei loves spicy foods, so he got the tantan-men.  As red as this is, believe it or not, Nyanko-Sensei still added spice to this.  It's probably plenty hot for most people, though. 

After 30 or so minutes of my best effort, this was all I could do. I was just starting to really get into the noodles.  It was pretty darned good, too - not too salty, not fishy, and not oily. It was a solid soy sauce based broth that matched really well with the sweetness of the veggies.  If I had more time, I would've eaten more.  2 hours later, I was at my desk and hungry again, wishing I'd had the time to get through this bowl.

Then again, I probably saved myself from a painful stomachache and a post-carbfest energy crash afterward.

I still want to try it again...

If you're getting on or getting off the highway in Tomiura and find yourself hungry, I definitely recommend stopping by Ramen Yamaki.  If you're coming from Tateyama, turn left at the light just before 7-11, go over a mini-bridge, and park in the open lot on the right.  You can see the entrance to Yamaki from the parking lot.  As far as I know, they're open open weekdays, and only for lunch.  I
guess when you have a line of customers at lunchtime every day, you can afford to close for dinner.

Good thing I work 2 minutes away.  I'll be back for round 2 with that veggie ramen...

Liz