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November 13, 2004

Cold Soba and Udon Magic

Cold Soba and Udon Magic
By JULIA MOSKIN

SOBA noodles, made from buckwheat flour, are very popular in
Japan, but they are treated more reverently than ramen.
Traditionally the Japanese take hikkoshi soba (moving soba)
to new neighbors and eat toshikoshi soba (year-crossing soba)
on New Year's Eve in hopes of a long and unbroken life (that
is, a life like a noodle). In New York fresh soba is made
daily at Honmura An, Soba-Ya, Soba Nippon and now at Onigashima,
sometimes right in the dining room. Purists eat their soba cold,
with nothing at all or perhaps a cup of chilled dashi (a
broth of dried fish and kelp) for dipping, to savor the
nuttiness of the wheat. But fresh soba also tastes great
— and is also served in Japan in the winter — in a bowl of
hot dashi, sprinkled with scallions and sliced roast duck.

Both soba and udon noodles are often served topped with tempura
(fried vegetables or fish), but some New York restaurants are
serving tempura separately. "Our American customers want the
tempura to stay crispy," said Satoru Chida, the chef at
Onigashima. "But Japanese like it both ways, paripari"
— crisp — "and yawara kai," or soft and gooey.

The most recent Japanese noodle fad is for a kind of udon,
a thick, springy noodle made from fine white flour. Sanuki
udon is everyday fare in the southwestern region of Kagawa.
It has a noticeable chewiness, achieved by walking or dancing
on the dough to knead it. But it was little known until 2002,
when a Kagawa university professor published a surprisingly
entertaining book, "Osorubeki Sanuki Udon" ("The Magic of
Sanuki Udon"), with about 800 tasting reports on local noodle
shops. The book became a national best seller, and
Kagawa has developed a Sanuki udon cottage industry of tours,
classes and tastings, like the Peter Mayle-theme tours of
Provence.

The first Sanuki udon restaurant in Tokyo, a cafeteria-style
place called Hanamaru, opened in 2002. There are now more
than 100 branches in Japan. Sanuki udon is available, imported
frozen, at Soba Nippon, and Naduman Hakubai will soon be
serving it fresh. A group of New York-based Kagawa natives
have formed the Sanuki Project, dedicated to bringing fresh
sanuki udon to our shores.

"We ate sanuki udon every day in school," said Miki Osaka,
a leader of the group. "Ramen is O.K., but we need sanuki."

[NYT, 2004 November 10]

Posted by omor at November 13, 2004 01:29 PM

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