Shoyu Tare: Seasoning the Ramen Bowl

Shoyu ramen's development is documented from the early 1900s — the Tokyo style of ramen established by Chinese restaurants that adapted the clear, soy-seasoned chicken noodle soup they brought with them from Guangdong. The tare tradition distinguishes Japanese ramen from its Chinese noodle soup ancestors: the Japanese tare system — concentrated seasoning added to a pre-made broth at service — is a Japanese innovation that allows standardisation of the seasoning while allowing the broth and tare to be developed separately.

Tare (pronounced 'tah-reh') is the concentrated seasoning paste or sauce added to a ramen bowl before the broth is poured — the preparation that gives each style of ramen its character. Without tare, a ramen broth is a soup; with tare, it is a specific style of ramen. Shoyu tare (soy sauce tare) is the seasoning base of Tokyo-style shoyu ramen — the original ramen style, developed in the Tokyo Chinese-Japanese restaurant district of Asakusa in the early 20th century. It is not simply soy sauce: it is a reduced, seasoned compound of multiple soy sauce varieties, mirin, sake, and aromatics — more complex and more balanced than any single component.

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