Ramen-Ya Hiro

The kitchen at at Ramen-Ya Hiro is like a steam train, with its perpetual triple boiling going on. The other side of the bar boils with customers slurping up broths that have spent ten hours on low heat overnight. Hiroki specifies that they only make three varieties of ramen because they want to specialize in quality and speed. The menu features the classic ramen recipes: soy (with a broth made of chicken and pork, with soya sauce), miso (the same but with miso instead of soya), and seafood. The home-made noodles (see the machine at the end of the bar) are a marvel: you can put them on your plate and swirl them around your chopsticks tightly until the broth escapes and they’re still perfectly elastic. While I gobble up the soya ramen, marveling at the density and the mixture of the two broths and the delicacy of the pork, I notice an aftertaste of seafood and I am instantly reminded of my mother’s own ‘mar i montanya’ dishes that feature food from both the sea and the land.