Ramentary: Ton Chin Kan Ramen (Wadayama)

I figured if the spot had a picture of a pig on the sign, they must have confidence in their tonkostu (pork bone) broth. I always like seeing manual laborers, truckers, and other blue collar guys in a ramen joint, because that usually means it's hearty, tasty, and reasonably priced. Ton Chin Kan sounds like a Chinese place, but they specialize in the version of ramen broth that I seem to favor: fatty, thick, and addictive.
In a nice air-conditioned, all wood restaurant (seems to be a lot of those here), a simple menu with typical ramen choices: shio, miso, shoyu, along with the signature tonkotsu, and side items like gyoza and fried rice. They also were advertising what looked like squid fries, long thin strips of squid lightly fried and served alongside your ramen for about 3 bucks. I didn't get them this time, but wouldn't be surprised if I tried them on the next trip.

The school nurse and I both ordered the tonkotsu ramen with a side dish with a name I can't remember. It's basically rice with a raw egg, leeks, tiny strips of nori (dried seaweed) and chunks of pork, with a bit of a special gyoza shoyu for good measure. It reminded me a lot of a meal I used to have as a kid. My dad would take some day old rice, plop a sunny side egg on top and drizzle shoyu on it; a hearty meal for a growing boy.

My English team teacher ordered the shoyu with small fried rice and chicken karaage. Karaage is basically a large chicken nugget, boneless chunks covered in a thin layer of batter and fried. Very similar to the Hawaiian fried chicken you find at places like the Loft in SoCal, but without any of the sweetness. They seem to like dipping them in ketchup over here, but I find the flavor fine on its own.

Anyway TonChinKan is about 3 blocks from my 2nd school, Ookura Elementary (more on the school later), and I plan on being back fairly often...obviously after I've scoped out the rest of the food. Pics to come after my next visit!