Who would have thought Regina has been titled the “Ramen City”?

Ramen, a Japanese style soup with thin, handmade wheat noodles served with meat or fish broth, has become popular among the Regina culinary scene. And now there is even a week dedicated to it.

Koreto Yamauchi is the manager of Wann Izakaya, a Japanese restaurant in downtown Regina. Yamauchi started the Week of Ramen for the first time this year as a way to promote ramen while also getting local restaurants involved.

“In Japan each area has its own style of ramen,” said Yamauchi. “I thought it was cool that Regina has its own style of ramen, so I thought let’s create Regina ramen here which has Regina local ingredients.”

Wearing a T-shirt that said “No Ramen, No life,” Yamauchi wanted to emphasize that ramen is not just for Japanese restaurants and for Regina to promote its own style.

Week of Ramen includes Skye Café & Bistro, BOMB, Tipsy Samurai, Victoria’s Tavern, Circa 27 and Bento Bento. These restaurants will be making their own unique ramen recipes throughout the 13 days of the event.

“Ramen is getting very popular … by making this event other [restaurants] can make ramen too,” Yamauchi said.

The event runs Nov. 18 – 30 and customers are able to take part and try different styles of the traditional Japanese soup.

Bar Willow Eatery is one of the restaurants taking part. An owner of the restaurant, James Taylor, thinks this is a great opportunity for local restaurants to take part.

Taylor said that this event will allow people to try ramen at different restaurants and experience all different kinds of styles.

To Taylor, Week of Ramen is about creating unique dishes that represent Regina with locally sourced ingredients.

“It creates a bit of an awareness that different restaurants can make different food items and are not stuck to one type”, said Taylor.

CJ Katz, who is a food writer and cookbook author really admires these restaurants that can make a good ramen bowl. These noodles are handmade and take a lot of skill, after that it is up to the chef on what to put with the noodles said Katz.

“Ramen is all about the noodle,” said Katz. “Festivals like this are really effective at bringing people out and giving us an opportunity to try something new.”