Tokyo's Spiciest Ramen Has Diners in Tears

Makoto Shirane, the "Ramen King", claims to make the best ramen in Tokyo. The signature dish at his restaurant, Mouko Tanmen Nakamoto, comes in a striking red sauce: a fiery red bowl of noodles that sets your throat ablaze from the very first bite. It has earned the nickname "the legendary spiciest ramen in the city".

For more than 20 years, Shirane, owner of Mouko Tanmen Nakamoto in Tokyo, Japan, has given ramen a uniquely flavorful kick, crafting a fiery bowl that has become legendary as the spiciest ramen in town.

His bowls of ramen are known for their bold blend of exceptionally hot spices.

"People often joke that their favorite foods make up part of their body. I might be 68% water and 32% noodles," says Makoto Shirane, Japan's Ramen King, who insists that ramen is part of the Japanese spirit.

Shirane learned his craft from his predecessor, Mr. Nakamoto. "I believe that for Japanese people, ramen is part of their very soul," he says. "Ramen is like a community: on their own, the ingredients, like people, don't mean much, but together they become something truly special."

The ramen shop Shirane opened in Tokyo, Mouko Tanmen Nakamoto, has become the city's top spot for spicy noodles. Long before opening it, Shirane was a regular at Nakamoto Ramen, the birthplace of this fiery dish. That restaurant opened in the 1960s and thrived, but closed in the '90s when chef Nakamoto's health declined.

To this day, the spicy ramen recipe remains unchanged from the original. "About three months after it closed, I was dreaming about the ramen," Shirane says. "I started wondering whether I could make it myself." He remembers the bowls at Nakamoto Ramen: curly noodles tossed with red chili, swimming in a broth simmered for hours, a gorgeous, bright red soup.

Spurred on by the absence of spicy ramen in his life, Shirane begged Nakamoto for his famous recipe. Nakamoto helped him realize his dream, teaching him all his secrets and his deep knowledge of ramen. In 2000, only about a year and a half after Nakamoto Ramen closed (December 1998), Shirane reopened the restaurant as Mouko Tanmen Nakamoto, and the chain has since grown to dozens of branches.

Diners often leave with flushed cheeks and tears still streaming down their faces from the ferocious heat of the noodles. And yet they keep coming back for more. Twenty years after Mouko Tanmen Nakamoto opened, people from all over the world still flock to it to experience this unrivaled bowl of noodles.