Photo: Courtesy Santouka
A chain of ramen stores with a Los Angeles cult following will open an outpost in San Jose’s Mitsuwa market tomorrow. Santouka pops up as a ramen favorite in blogs like Ramaniac and Open Mouth, Insert Fork. It features an Asahikawa style broth from the Hokkaido region, which according to Ramaniac is characterized by “a tonkotsu and seafood soup stock paired with one of the traditional tare of shoyu, miso or shio (salt),” and evokes a “deep, marine sweetness through the use of shellfish native to Hokkaido’s waters.” But until now it’s been a stranger to the Bay Area. Will it outshine nearby Halu and Kahoo, as one Chowhound suggests?
