Green Corner: Tenkake Ramen and Green Soft, Wakayama's Soul Food

Overview

Wakayama City's soul food comes from a tea merchant. Gyokurin-en has traded tea here since 1854, and in 1958 — looking for something to sell through the summer, when leaf tea sits unmoved — the previous head of the house, Hayashi Kimihiko, put matcha into soft serve, having heard that people abroad drank the powder with milk. Soft serve was itself still a novelty in Japan. Green Soft is what came of it: domestic leaves ground on a stone mill until the grain feels smooth, sweetened with restraint. The company sells it at its own diners, called Green Corner.

The hard version began as thrift. The soft type is swirled at the counter; the hard type, frozen and capped, began when what was left in the machine's tank at closing was piped into wafer cones and frozen rather than binned. Customers took to buying them ten at a time, so the company gave them a packet of their own. They now fill supermarket freezers across the prefecture, and a matcha sweet in the same livery travels without a cool box. The duck on the packet is Gurin-chan; the one wearing a ribbon is Charmy-chan.

The other pillar is tenkake ramen, nothing like the pork-and-soy bowls the city is known for: a light broth strewn with tenkasu, the crisp batter bits left from frying tempura, which soften as they soak. Noodles and soup are made in the company's own factory, and the low price has always been the point — this is what schoolchildren eat on the way home, often with akashiyaki, ten dashi-dipped batter balls cooked to order. Four Green Corner branches are scattered across the city. The flagship in Dejima opens 11:00–22:00 and parking is free; those inside Izumiya and Aeon Mall follow their host's hours, so check before setting out. Without a car, kishuchaya Gyokurin-en at Kino Wakayama, beside Nankai's Wakayamashi Station, pours the tea.