I don’t over-estimate the importance of these five rambles in search of ramen. They are simple self-propelled journeys through the ordinary lands of my city in search of ordinary bowls of soup.
When I use the word ‘ordinary’ I mean to say that the ingredients are just that. Garage doors, railway tracks, shopping carts, trees. Broth, noodles, pork, egg.
The act of walking is ordinary too. It’s the most basic, primitive means of human locomotion. It requires no machinery, no device to make it possible. No bikes. No cars. Just a pair of shoes. Not even that if I was more of a walking aesthete.
Even the photographs are ordinary. Intentionally so. Smartphone snapshots. Simple observations of ingredients as I find them.
There is no reasonable explanation for embarking on a 10 or 28 kilometre walk to savour a bowl of soup, no matter how good it might be.
When I use the word ‘reasonable’ I mean to say my rambles run counter to our current need to get from A to B in the most efficient way possible. In a car or maybe on a bike.
The best that can be said for my ramen rambles is that they are unreasonable walks in search of the ordinary.
I can live with that.
Here are the links to earlier Ramen Ramble posts:
Ramen Rambles: Part One (Yujiro)
Ramen Rambles: Part Three (Aji Kura)
Ramen Rambles: Part Four (Kazoku)
Ramen Rambles: Part Five (Dwarf no Cachette)
