"Buta" is pig or pork in Japanese, in this case, thinly- sliced tender pork and "shoga" is ginger, the main. marinade, along with mirin, sake and shoyu.

Ramen is typically classified by broth flavor, with three especially common categories: shoyu (soy sauce), shio (salt), and miso. A fourth, tonkotsu, references the broth's base ingredient, not flavor.

Gyukotsu ramen turns out to be rare even in Japan, though it apparently has some popularity in the Tottori Prefecture, located in the southern part of the country.

The broth for tonkotsu ramen is based on pork bones, and tonkotsu (豚骨/とんこつ) in Japanese means "pork bones". The soup broth is prepared by boiling the bones in water for a significant amount of time, up to eighteen hours, and the broth is typically cloudy in appearance.