{"id":75890,"date":"2026-01-07T14:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T05:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jan\/07\/yamagata-ramen-japan-noodles"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:00:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T05:00:36","slug":"yamagata-is-ramen-japans-city-of-noodle-fiends-revels-in-capital-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=75890","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Yamagata is ramen\u2019: Japan\u2019s city of noodle fiends revels in \u2018capital\u2019 status"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Noodle dish is nation\u2019s favourite comfort food and source of civic pride \u2013 but it has health risks<\/p>\n<p>The road to ramen paradise ends in the unlikeliest of places. At Men Endo, located in a suburban street, next to a school and a low-rise apartment block, bowls of noodles disappear in a flurry of slurps, gulps and hurried but heartfelt exchanges of appreciation between customer and chef.<\/p>\n<p>On a cold afternoon in Yamagata, a city in Japan\u2019s northeast, the wait for a seat at Men Endo\u2019s counter is mercifully short. Inside the door, a ticket dispenser lists myriad options, from regular <em>shoyu<\/em> (soy sauce) ramen \u2013 in small, medium or large portions \u2013 to <em>maji soba<\/em>, a soupless symphony of toppings, sauce and noodles that diners are invited to mix together with their chopsticks, along with a spoonful of spicy miso.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jan\/07\/yamagata-ramen-japan-noodles\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Noodle dish is nation\u2019s favourite comfort food and source of civic pride \u2013 but it has health risksThe road to ramen paradise ends in the unlikeliest of places. At Men Endo, located in a suburban street, next to a school and a low-rise apartment block, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,311,88,3486],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-food","category-japan","category-noodles"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75891,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75890\/revisions\/75891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}