🍱 Sanma-men
This noodle dish originated in Yokohama, Japan, and consists of stir-fried vegetables such as bean sprouts, Chinese cabbage, and pork in a thickened broth topped with ramen noodles. There are various theories as to the origin of the name and the Chinese characters used to write it, but one theory is that it is written "raw horse noodle," which means "rice noodles with fresh, crispy ingredients on top. Before World War II, meat soba (roosu noodles) was a common dish in Yokohama Chinatown, but it was expensive, so "sanma-men," a noodle dish with vegetables, came to be prepared as a meal. The vegetable starchy sauce kept the soup from getting cold, and the large portions made it popular, and soon Chinese restaurants throughout the prefecture began adding it to their menus. Today, many ramen stores and Chinese restaurants in the prefecture feature "Sanma-men" as their main dish. For the citizens of Yokohama and Kanagawa Prefecture, Sanma-men has become a familiar dish that they see on a daily basis.