Akira Ramen Inside Mercato Centrale Roma in Rome, Italy

Posted by Rowena Dumlao - Giardina 12/16/2017

Akira Ramen Inside Mercato Centrale Roma in Rome, Italy

I love food and I know that you do too. And it's even much better when you can have as much good stuff as you can under one roof. Maybe that's why I applaud the concept of Mercato Centrale Roma. It's a gathering of Italy's good restaurants and good producers in one accessible place, right at the heart of Rome, at Termini, Rome's central train station. At Mercato Centrale, Japan just entered the scene! Italy and Japan share a bond about extreme attention to quality in their cuisines. Ramen filled up the only non-Italian space at the market, accompanying the already existing sushi stand there.

Akira Yoshida introduced his ramen to Rome last year when he opened his first ramen bar in Via Ostiense, 73 in Rome. Japan has various kinds of ramen, depending on the area and the ingredients that they produce. Akira instead chooses something more from central Japan where the broth is not too light like in the southern part of the country nor too heavy like in the north.

At Akira Ramen Bar, the basis of the ramen is iekei. It is a creation of the Yoshimura Family in 1974 that became the most famous kind in the city. It is composed of the tonkotsu soup (broth of pork bones), and futomen (a slightly thicker variant of ramen). Akira aims to introduce the authentic flavors of iekei ramen to everyone with the determination of remaining faithful to the craftsmanship and tradition.

Cooking the tonkotsu broth takes ten hours of extremely slow cooking because in this long process, all the nutrients and flavors are extracted from the bones. The futomen is exclusively done by Akira Ramen Bar with a special kind of flour using the pasta maker brought in from Japan. All the other ingredients used for the ramen are sourced from Italian producers from the area, following the concept of kilometro zero (food miles).

Akira Ramen Bar can also be found in two other locations in the center of Rome. The first one that opened is at Via Ostiense, 73 and the second one at Piazza Bologna, 8/9, where the menus are more ample with other entries other than ramen.