Tonkotsu ramen

Tonkotsu ramen (豚骨ラーメン) is a ramen dish that originated in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, and is a specialty dish on the island of Kyushu.

The broth for tonkotsu ramen is based on pork bones, which is what the word tonkotsu (豚骨/とんこつ) means in Japanese. It is prepared by boiling the bones in water for up to eighteen hours, at which point the soup becomes cloudy in appearance. Additional broth ingredients can include onion, garlic, spring onions, ginger, pork back fat, pig's trotters, oil, and chicken carcass. The dish is traditionally topped with chāshū (sliced pork belly), and additional ingredients can include kombu, kikurage, shōyu, chili bean paste, and sesame seeds.

The traditional preparation method for tonkotsu ramen is for the noodles to be hard in the center. Some ramen shops allow customers to select the level of firmness, including futsu for regular or standard, harigane for very hard, barikata for al dente, and yawamen for soft. Some restaurants also provide a second order of noodles if requested by the customer, in a system referred to as kaedama.