Is that Ramen Salad?

I have posted about ramen numerous times on Ibaraki Eats. From regular old ramen to the radical maze soba. All great tasty experiences. This is a first though. Ramen salad. I am sure it feels weird to read that. It felt weird writing it. Is it ramen? Is it a salad? Is it a crazy hybrid? What I can tell you is that it is delicious and it is only found in one place. That place is Tsuchiura's own Menya Ishida.

Menya Ishida

Menya Ishida is located in Nakatakatsu area of Tsuchiura. It is very close to the Tsuchirura Yamaya liquor store and the Kasumi supermarket.
I didn't know about this place and to be honest, it wasn't on my radar at all. It was Mrs. Ibaraki Eats who first found out about it. I was watching Xmen'97 (an amazing show by the way) and my wife showed me a picture on her smartphone. I paused the show and saw something that made me gasp in interest and horror. Ramen salad. It looked like a delicious abomination. One side of my brain said, "This is an affront to all ramen." While the other side said, "We have to try this."
Fast forward to a sunny Tuesday afternoon in May. The Ibaraki Eats Duo was heading inside to Menya Ishida to have lunch.

Inside

Ramen Ishida has the same layout as most ramen places. When you walk in, the ticket vending machine is also the menu. A counter area that fits up to ten people, at least I think it was up to ten people, and behind the counter is the kitchen area where you can see the owner and staff hard at work making ramen.
What surprised me was seeing my favorite katsuobushi (bonito) flakes on sale at a table near the vending machine. Mutou Keizurbushi is a katsuobushi specialty shop that has been operating in Tsuchiura since the 1930s. The same family has run it since then. You can usually find Mutou's katsuobushi in the Village Market Tsukuba where they sell their katsuobushi and make a tasty onigiri. If you want to learn more about them, here is a link to their Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/mutou_kezuribushiten/

Anyway, I was surprised to see that and to see that Menya Ishida uses Mutou's katsuobushi in some of their dishes. I couldn't wait to try it.

The Menu

Like 99.9% of all ramen restaurants in Ibaraki, the menu and ticket vending machine are all in Japanese. The vending machine has the regular menu items, while the blackboard has the special menu items. First, let's talk about the ticket vending machine:
The first three top buttons are the ramens. The red button is chicken and dried sardines soup ramen shoyu or soy sauce style, the blue is the same but with salt, and the white button is thick chicken ramen (I think).
The next top buttons are from the special menu which is on the blackboard. I'll go over that after I talk about the ticket vending machine.
The next buttons are the aedama buttons. Aedama is the pasta-looking ramen without any soup.
The next buttons are the rice bowls of the day.
The next buttons are the otsumami or snack of the day.
The next buttons are extra toppings.
After that, you have the Dolce or dessert buttons. That shocked me. I wouldn't have put the word dolce with a ramen restaurant.
Finally, the last buttons are the drinks with alcohol.

Now we talk about the blackboard special menu. When this blog post comes out, the blackboard menu may have changed.
The top menu item on the blackboard is the number 6 Caesar salad with no soup ramen. The blackboard also states that this ramen is a limited-time menu item.
Below that are the rice bowls of the day. One is the egg and katsuobushi from Mutou rice bowl and the other is the roast pork rice bowl.
Under that are the desserts. One is the Espuma pudding and the other is the Cassata ice cream. Both are Italian desserts. Did I mention that the owner used to work at Tsukuba's Italian restaurant Aimci?

Egg and Katsuobushi Rice Bowl

This was our appetizer before we had our ramen. The dish is a simple tamago kake gohan rice bowl. Egg in a rice bowl with soy sauce. This rice bowl brought my favorite katsuobushi and the egg tasted fresh. I wouldn't mind having this tamago kake gohan rice bowl every morning.
Next up was our ramen.

Chicken and Dried Sardines Ramen

This was my order. Looking at the ramen, I didn't really have a thought. I wasn't sure what to expect and how this ramen was going to taste. I slurped up some noodles and the first thing that came to my mind was "light." It was a light-tasting ramen. Not a heavy taste in sardines at all, nor chicken. It felt like I was eating a very healthy ramen, and I think I was. It was filled with different types of seaweed and negi (long onion). I felt like this was a great ramen to have if I had a cold or needed a light lunch. The sliced chicken in the ramen was good and a nice addition to the ramen. I might get this ramen again if I am planning on going on a diet.

Caesar Salad Ramen

This was my wife's order. She got the special ramen, the Caesar salad ramen. This ramen brought everything a Caesar salad brings with a fried egg on top and ramen noodles at the bottom. It was an enigma to look at. Can this ramen salad work?
After my wife took the first slurp of her noodles, her eyes lit up with joy and said that this kind of ramen salad could work. She let me try some of her ramen and I have to say that I was a bit jealous. Here I was with this light-tasting ramen and she had ramen with a bunch of different flavors and these thick noodles. Do you know what was amazing about this ramen? Slurping up those thick ramen noodles while they were dosed in the egg yolk from the fried egg and getting some of that shredded cheese mixed in there. It was like walking through a vegetable garden with a bowl of ramen in one hand and a large piece of parmesan cheese in the other. I know that my last sentence may seem weird and maybe even unappetizing, but this ramen was fantastic. I am not sure if I will ever be able to eat a regular old Caesar salad again. The slices of chicken in the ramen were a welcome sight under all that salad and all the cheese was just something that made my day a lot better.
I can't wait to order this Caesar salad ramen again, and I hope to soon.

Asari (clams) with fresh seaweed and cream sauce

This was our aedama order. Our noodles after our ramen order. We ordered the clams with fresh seaweed and cream sauce. It wasn't a bad aedama. The noodles were very thin but they went well with the cream sauce. The mixture of seaweed and clams was a nice seafood combination. It was a light meal compared to the Caesar salad ramen.

After we finished our meal, we thanked the owner and headed out to do errands. This ramen place is one that I will soon not forget. It was interesting. It seems like the owner is experimenting with different types of ramen to see what customers respond well to. If he needs a guinea pig, I will be there in an instant. I hope the Ibaraki Eats Duo can visit Menya Ishida again. Unfortunately, they are only open for lunch during the weekdays, so we will have to try to go during the weekend when they are open for lunch and dinner.

So if you are in the mood for some interesting ramen, let's say salad ramen, and are in Tsuchiura, why not give Menya Ishida a chance? Who knows, you might see us there, excitedly waiting for our ramen salad or whatever new ramen the owner has concocted. Enjoy!

For more information on Menya Ishida, check out their website:
https://mennya-ishida.com/

Update

Bad news I'm afraid. My wife let me know last night that the Caesar salad ramen is no longer available. It may show up again next year or maybe even this summer when it is hot.
But not all is bad news. My wife also let me know that the new ramen is a special tonkotsu ramen. According to her, this ramen is super popular at Menya Ishida. I hope we can try it before it's gone.