Hiroshima Tsukemen

Hiroshima tsukemen has almost nothing in common with the thick-broth dipping noodles served elsewhere in Japan. The noodles are cold, the dipping sauce is a thin soy base sharpened with vinegar, sesame, chilli oil and a great deal of ground chilli, and the plate comes with boiled cabbage, cucumber, spring onion, chashu and often a boiled egg. It is closer to a cold spicy salad with noodles than to ramen.

It began at a Chinese restaurant called Shinkaen, opened in Hatchobori in 1954, where it was a summer-only item and was not called tsukemen at all but reimen. The style spread through the city and specialist chains followed from 2000. Heat is chosen at ordering and the scale runs from nothing to genuinely punishing, so asking for zero is a perfectly normal order.