Gluten-free ramen shop “Beimen HALAL” is now open in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture

“Beimen HALAL” opened along National Highway Route No. 8 of Joetsu City in Niigata Prefecture.
As the name says, it is a ramen shop that is both HALAL friendly and gluten free, since it does not contain any wheat flour. We interviewed Mr. Furukawa, the owner of Beimen HALAL.

What made you start HALAL-friendly services?

I heard from a friend that Muslim travelers visiting Japan are eating instant Muslim food since they cannot find food that they can eat. When I heard that Muslim people are wanting to try ramen, I wanted to make delicious Japanese ramen that they can eat.

What is the feature of your ramen and what do you take seriously when making them?

Keeping in mind that there are people trying to find food while having various food restrictions, we are serving ramen that can be eaten by as many people as possible along with offering healthy food. Also, Niigata is an area with the most delicious rice in Japan, and we use 100% of this rice for our hand-made rice noodles.

What are some difficulties that you experienced in the process?

It was very difficult to bring out umami for the sauce, which is the most important element in ramen making, using only limited ingredients. Also, we had many trial and error in the progress of making 100% rice flour noodles because we were not able to use wheat flour as a thickener.