The Soba Japanese Traditional

There are variety kinds of noodle in Japan.

Noodles are nearly as popular as rice in Japan. If you are driving thorough the most remote and wild part of the country and come across a small house by the wayside with nothing around for mils except hills, trees, and rice fields, the odds are that it will be a noodle shop.

Noodles come in all kind of shapes and sizes. The most common are soba buckwheat noodles; and somen, thin white wheat noodles, which are often served chilled in summer. Noodles are always served quite simply, either in a broth or with a dipping sauce, with a couple of vegetables or prawns on top, so that the emphasis is on the flavor of the noodles themselves rather than the sauces that go with them.

As for noodle shops, they are usually quite modest affairs. At one end of the scale there are the noodle stalls on station platforms, where you can bolt down a bowl of noodles on the run as your train is pulling in. There are also plenty of small noodle shops where you perch on a stool at the counter and chat with the chef, like the one immortalized in the film Tampopo. At the other end of the scale, there are grand noodle establishments that have been purveying noodles, usually soba, for generations. Here you can watch the chef deftly rolling out a great sheet of buckwheat paste, then skillfully slicing it into fine brown noodles. At place like these, the exact ingredients of the broth and dipping sauce are a closely guarded secret.

Noodles are a good example of the way in which Japanese reflects the seasons and the locality. In summer the favorite dish is chilled somen noodles, while in winter noodles are served hot. Soba is a great Tokyo food, while udon is popular in Osaka and the south. Every New Year's Eve, as the bells strike midnight, everyone downs a bowl of toshikoshisoba, "passing-of-the-year soba." The long stands of soba represent long life for the coming year.

This page takes "soba" only.
Soba is the most traditional noodles.

The etiquette of noodle-eating is to eat them so hot that you have to suck in a little air to cool them down, which results in a slurping noise. If you don't slurp, people assume you haven't enjoyed your noodles!

Buckwheat Noodles, or soba, is cultivated all over world. It was originally grown at Southeast Asia, China, Japan and so on. In the present, it is cultivated large amount in Canada, because soba cultivating is a big business for Canada. Japan imports much from Canada. In Japan, it is cultivated in mainly Hokkaido.

Gensoba is harvested from cultivated soba. In the ancient times, buckwheat noodles was not as "noodles." Gensoba is excepted the leather, and made into powder. In ancient, people were edible in this point by kneading the powder. Since then, soba had meant "cutting soba."

At the start, you add the suitable amount of water to powder made from gensoba according to temperature and humidity of the day.

You mix them by standing your finger.

You knead dough and make a clod after brought out shine.

You extend it using the noodles stick.

You make it square by using noodle sticks four times.

You tan it equally.

You make it same thickness by using noodle stick delicately.

You fold it up and cut by a kitchen knife supporting a plate of wood.

You boil it, or cutting soba, not too long.

You cool it with the cold water and wash it well by the water.

This is very simplest winter noodle recipe and therefore, according to many connoisseurs, the best.

This is noodles served with a piece of deep-fried tofu on top. According to folklore, the wily fox can't resist deep-fried tofu, which accounts for the name.

Despite the romantic name, moon-viewing noodles is a simple dish in which an egg yolk rests on each bowl of noodles, as golden as the full moon in autumn.

Classic tempura noodle as served in noodle shops all over the country are made with giant king prawns, two per portion. But any kind of tempura is delicious with noodles. However, a tempura noodle without noodles is to be favorite for drinker. It is called tennuki. This is for people of liquor drinker.

In summer noodles are usually served chilled. Soba buckwheat noodles in particular are delicious and refreshing served extremely simply, with a tangy dipping sauce mixed with green onions and ginger.

More than any other dish, chilled somen are redolent of summer. They are the finest and most delicate of noodles, and are always served with ice cubes, sometimes plain or, with various different colored seafood and vegetables.

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