Essay The eternal search for the perfect bowl By Michael Pronko	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
完璧な一杯を探す旅は続く 日本人にとっての「国民食」とも言えるラーメン。テレビや雑誌での特集記事はもちろん、ネット上には人気店や新規開店を紹介する「ラーメンフリーク」のサイトもあふれている。いったいなぜ、ラーメンは（筆者も含めて）多くのファンを獲得しているのだろうか。

A few weeks ago, I met a former student who is now a salesman. He travels all over Tokyo to meet clients. I asked him how he survived such a tiring job running all over the city every day. He admitted it was tough, but he said his job was made easy, in fact a pleasure, because of one thing: the Ramen Database.

The great achievement of the Ramen Database is to map the entire country -- for ramen! Every noodle shop in the entire country is on there. Because I am also a fanatic about ramen, when my student told me he used the site almost every day, I felt like I had found a brother. I also felt jealous he gets to eat more ramen than I do.

We both appreciated how fantastic it is to know the entire length of Japan is mapped for one of our favorite experiences. You can go anywhere in the country without worrying you will end up ramen-less. Ramen is like a cult. People can be fanatics. The website has become something of a sacred site itself, as if it had mapped every temple or national treasure of Japan.

Ramen stirs passions. Ramen-lovers have opinions on everything from the curl of the noodles to the freshness of the bean sprouts to the chef's technique of shaking off the water. And it is not like comparing ramen is so easy. You can't line them up and try one after the next. Few people can manage more than one bowl a day, so you have to remember your first impressions. But people do, and in tremendous detail.

Ramen and technology seem an unlikely pairing, since the cold hard feel of a computer or cellphone seems far removed from the steamy warmth of a bowl of noodles. But, what better use of technology? I love being able to thumb my cellphone, thinking, "Deliver me to a great bowl of noodles," and it happens!

Even though Japan is perhaps the most obsessively mapped country in the world, the ramen database feels as much practical necessity as obsession. Japanese cities are hard to navigate, and before the database, some of the best ramen places could only be found by accident or word of mouth. Thanks to the site, favorite ramen shops are now much, much easier to find, making the country a little bit more transparent, and a lot less hungry.

Ramen may even be rising to the heights of Michelin stars and international culinary guidebooks, with a ramen shop in Hong Kong awarded a Michelin star. Still, it remains one of the beloved of Japanese foods. A quick glance inside any ramen shop at lunchtime will show you that ramen is taken very seriously not just on the Internet, but in real life, too. Bon appetit!

Shukan ST: MARCH 16, 2012

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