Hyper Fatton / ハイパーファットン - Nippa
Hyper Fatton is a Jiro inspired ramen store located close by the not so central Nippa station in Kanagawa. The owner of the store is well known for his steadily changing creative ramen bowl specials, as well as his sometimes less than customer friendly attitude. The Ramen Database rating above 92 proves the love of the ramen community for their bowl, while a Google Maps rating of 3.6 includes many customer stories of less than stellar customer service. Of course, the latter point won’t really keep any real diehard ramen fan from visiting this store. Point in case, I made my way there together with Cody from Ramenguidejapan.com..
Not having been there before, I originally wanted to go for their regular bowl, however the Stamina Garlic special bowl sounded too good to pass on. As all other customers in the shop had the same red bowl in front of them, I would argue this was the right choice.
A perfect example of gluttony in a bowl
The Stamina Garlic Special at Hyper Fatton (スタミナにんにくん限定)
This bowl is an ideal example for gluttony in the form of ramen. As typical for Jiro style or Jiro inspired ramen shops, you will be asked if you want garlic. At this moment, you get the chance to modify the toppings of the bowl to your liking in terms of garlic, amount of vegetables, richness of the soup and extra pork back fat. I ordered “ninniku abura”, which adds a spoonful of fresh garlic and a healthy (?) serving of pork back fat. Otherwise the bowl would have come without those. I also added quail eggs.
Close-up on the soboro and pork back fat
The first thing that catches the eye is the soboro, the ground meat “sauce” which visually reminds a bit of a Bolognese pasta sauce. It is most likely inspired by the minced meat topping of Taiwan Ramen, which is a Nagoya staple and doesn’t have much to do with Taiwanese food really. Unlike Bolognese sauce, the minced meat is not prepared with tomatoes, but rather with lots of garlic and chili. You can find an easy recipe to make a version of it at home here.
The pork back fat is a must addition to this bowl in my book. It adds a lot of creaminess and richness, as fat usually does. Not wanting to open the calorie book here too much, but we are looking at probably around 500-600 calories in pork back fat alone. And with that, calories shall not be mentioned here again, because this bowl could potentially fuel a grown man for 2 days. Easily. Better to not think about it.
Jiro style tonkotsu soup, turned red most likely with doubanjiang
The soup is beautifully red and reminds me of Hungarian goulash (pörkölt) visually and even flavor wise. The broth base is a typical Jiro soup, based on pork bones and lots of pork back fat, heavily emulsified. It is most likely flavored with doubanjiang (豆瓣醬) with heavy paprika/chili notes, however without significant spiciness.
Pulling some of the 300 grams of noodles
The noodles are thick and chunky compared to regular ramen, but on the thinner side and more regular shaped when compared to other Jiro and Jiro inspired bowls. They still stand well against this super rich and heavy combo of soup and saucy toppings.
The options for size are mini and small, but don’t get fooled by these words. Mini is 150 grams, which equals a regular bowl of ramen at an ordinary non-Jiro ramen store. The small bowl already comes with 300 grams of noodles. From there, you can add noodles in 150 gram increments via the yellow button in the center of the vending machine for 150 Yen. I would argue that 300 grams is plenty, but you do you.
Uzura tamago, also known as quail eggs
The quail eggs were also great and added another creamy and a bit textural element to the bowl. They also provided a bit of a palate cleanser from the intense flavors of the bowl. A very welcome addition.
To summarize, this has probably been one of my favorite bowls of 2021 so far. Next time, I would probably even go for the additional cheese topping (チーズ button, 130 Yen) and add a slice of pork chashu (豚券 button, 200 Yen). If only this shop wasn’t such a hassle to get to.
If you want to check out this bowl or other specials at Hyper Fatton, make sure to check their Twitter on the day you are intending to go, as they update it daily with information about their special/gentei bowl. This bowl is coming back regularly, so there is a good chance you might get to try it, even if you are visiting the Tokyo area for a short time. I definitely will be back to try their original bowl as well, unless I get convinced to try another one of their specials.
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