It is well-known as the famous Sapporo Ramen Republic which is made up of a combination of 8 ramen shops. Visitors are welcomed to try the various ramen shops and vote for their favourite ramen shop.
There are a few different categories of favourites (e.g. decoration, taste, popularity, etc). This week, the ramen shop "Shirakaba-Sansou" swept all the awards!
It was a difficult choice choosing between the 8 ramen shops, but in the end we decided to try "Baikouken" which is one of the most famous ramen shop. Although it wasn't top of the list for the week, it was recommended by our tour guide as the longest standing ramen shop in Ramen Republic.
The butter and corn shio ramen that I tried tasted awesome! The ramen noodles were very "Q". We also ordered a plate of gyozas which went very well with the vinegar! Slurrpppp!! Did you know in Japanese culture, the louder the slurp, the more appreciation is shown to the chef.
Everywhere we went there seem to be mini shrines built in the most unexpected areas such as the Ramen Deity below. It is said that ramen chefs will pray for the Ramen Deity to bless them in making excellent ramen.
After dinner, we placed our votes in the voting box. Unfortunately, as we did not understand Japanese, we had difficulty figuring out what was written on the voting paper and weren't sure whether we have made the right vote. I wonder who won in the end?
If you find the concept of Sapporo's Ramen Republic interesting, you don't necessarily have to fly to Japan. Instead, you can visit Singapore's version called Ramen Champion, where 8 best ramen chefs battle it out at Bugis+ Level 4 and Changi Airport Terminal 3 to be the ultimate ramen champion!
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