Read a ramen menu: 40 words that help

A ramen menu can look like a wall of beautiful, impenetrable characters. Then you learn a handful of them, and suddenly the wall has doors. You spot 味噌 and know there's miso in the bowl; you see 大盛り and realise you can have more noodles. I think it's one of the most satisfying bits of Japanese a food-loving traveller can pick up.

Menus mix all three Japanese scripts: kanji (characters borrowed from Chinese), hiragana (the rounded native script) and katakana (the angular one, often used for foreign words). The same word may turn up in more than one script, so とんこつ and 豚骨 are both tonkotsu. Here are 40 words that will get you a long way, whether you're reading a paper menu or the buttons on a ticket machine.

The bowl

• ラーメン (rāmen): ramen, written in katakana. Some signs use the kanji 拉麺 instead.
• 中華そば (chūka soba): literally "Chinese soba", an older name for ramen, often used for classic, clear, soy-seasoned bowls.
• つけ麺 (tsukemen): dipping noodles. The noodles come on a separate plate, usually cool, with a thick, intense broth for dipping.
• 油そば / まぜそば (abura soba / mazesoba): brothless bowls with seasoned oil and sauce at the bottom. Mix everything thoroughly before you eat.
• 汁なし (shiru nashi): "without soup", as in 汁なし担々麺, brothless tantanmen.
• 担々麺 (tantanmen): Japan's take on Sichuan dandan noodles, usually a sesame-rich soup with chilli oil.

Broth and seasoning

Most ramen is defined by two things: the tare (タレ), the concentrated seasoning at the bottom of the bowl, and the broth poured over it. Our guide to the four ramen flavours explains how they fit together.

• 醤油 (shōyu): soy sauce. A shōyu ramen is seasoned with it and is usually clear and brown.
• 塩 (shio): salt. Shio ramen tends to be pale, clear and delicate.
• 味噌 (miso): fermented soybean paste, for a rich, opaque, savoury bowl.
• 豚骨 (tonkotsu): pork bones, boiled hard into a creamy, cloudy broth. Often written とんこつ.
• 鶏白湯 (tori paitan): a creamy, cloudy chicken broth. Its clear counterpart is 清湯 (chintan).
• 魚介 (gyokai): seafood. On a ramen menu it usually signals a broth with fish-based dashi, often from dried bonito and other dried fish.
• 煮干し (niboshi): dried sardines or anchovies, for a bold, slightly bitter, deeply savoury broth.
• 背脂 (seabura): pork back fat, often scattered over the bowl in soft white flecks for extra richness.
• こってり (kotteri): rich, heavy, full-bodied.
• あっさり (assari): light, clean, refreshing.
• 濃いめ / 薄め (koime / usume): stronger or lighter seasoning, when a shop lets you adjust it.
• 辛さ (karasa): spiciness, often offered in levels. 辛い (karai) means spicy; 激辛 (gekikara) means very spicy indeed.

Noodles

• 細麺 (hosomen): thin noodles, as in Hakata tonkotsu.
• 太麺 (futomen): thick noodles, the usual partner for tsukemen.
• ちぢれ麺 (chijire-men): wavy, curly noodles that catch the soup.
• かため (katame): firm. Also written 硬め.
• ふつう (futsū): regular, the way the cook intends. Also written 普通.
• やわらかめ (yawarakame): soft. Also written 柔らかめ.
• バリカタ (barikata): extra-firm, a term from Hakata. Some tonkotsu shops go further still, as far as 粉落とし (konaotoshi), noodles that are barely blanched.

Toppings

Our guide to ramen toppings covers these in more depth.

• チャーシュー (chāshū): slices of braised or roasted pork.
• 味玉 (ajitama): a soft-boiled egg marinated in a soy-based sauce, short for 味付け玉子 (ajitsuke tamago).
• メンマ (menma): bamboo shoots, fermented, then seasoned and simmered.
• ネギ (negi): green onion, sliced fine.
• 海苔 (nori): sheets of dried seaweed, usually propped against the side of the bowl.
• 全部のせ (zenbu nose): "everything on it", every topping the shop offers. Its cousin 特製 (tokusei), "special", often means a deluxe bowl with extra toppings.

Sizes, extras and ordering

• 並 (nami): regular size.
• 大盛り (oomori): a large serving of noodles.
• 替え玉 (kaedama): a refill of noodles for the broth you have left, a Hakata tradition.
• ライス (raisu): a bowl of rice, for soaking up the last of the soup.
• 餃子 (gyōza): pan-fried dumplings, ramen's favourite sidekick.
• セット (setto): a set, usually ramen with rice, gyōza or both.
• 食券 (shokken): a meal ticket, bought from a machine before you sit.
• 売切 (urikire): sold out.
• おすすめ (osusume): recommended. When all else fails, look for this word.

You don't need all forty to eat well. Learn four or five that match the way you like your bowl, and the rest will come one menu at a time. The day you read a ticket machine without reaching for your phone is a small, quiet victory, and I think it makes the ramen taste even better.