Noodles in Japan: Soba
Noodle is familiar food to many people in the world. Noodle comes with variety, and there are different kinds of shapes, length, and are made from different flours and ingredients.
In Japan, there are 3 kinds of noodles: Udon, Soba,and Ramen.In previous entry titled "Noodles in Japan: Udon", I wrote about what Udon is and how you can make it yourself, here, I like to write about Soba.
So,what is Soba?
Soba is buckwheat noodle. One noodle is about thickness of spaghetti and not round shape when you cut the pasta and look from side like spaghetti but rather,square shape when you cut across pasta and look from side. The Soba is made from buckwheat flour, Taro root,Egg white etc. The noodle color is brownish color.
If you visit Kyoto prefecture(western part of Japanese main island),which is tea is famous for, you can get a different kind of soba called Cha soba. Cha soba is green tea soba and noodle is flavored with green tea powder, and color is dark green. It has different flavor from regular buckwheat noodle soba, but very tasty and if you visit Kyoto, it is one of the dishes you may want to try.
In Japan, many families serve soba on New year's eve because soba is believed to be a symbol of longevity. Soba can be served hot or cold and on New year's eve, people eat it hot. During hot summer, many people enjoy cold soba noodle dish called "Zaru Soba".
When you serve soba hot, you will serve the same way to Udon: Soba will be in soy based broth along with chopped green onion etc. When you serve soba cold as "Zaru soba", after noodle is cooked, you will wash the noodle under the cold running water and soba will be served on bamboo plate, and you will get soy sauce based dipping sauce on side. Some people love to add a little bit of wasabi into the dipping sauce to give it a zing.
You can see soba picture at wikipedia website. To visit the wikipedia website to read more on soba, please click here.
I have found youtube video where you can watch how zaru soba (cold buckwheat noodle dish) is served. If you were a blog subscriber or reading this entry from Facebook, please click here to watch the video.
If you were a blog subscriber or reading this entry from Face book, please click here to watch the To watch the wanko soba contest video.
To eat soba, slurping is considered polite manner in Japan.
Sometimes it is nice change to have different kinds of Noodle. If you had a chance to visit Japan, or had a chance to buy a package of dry soba noodle at Asian store, try cook them and enjoy different flavor of noodle. Soba is very nutritious and tasty.
I have found that some of the youtube video titled soba is not actually a real soba dish. Some of them was actually Udon noodle, some of them were titled as soba although it was hiyamugi noodle. Hiyamugi noodle is as thin as Angel hair pasta if you understand, and made from wheat flour, not buckwheat flour. It is easy to break and cook in a few minutes and it is served hot or cold. To read more on Hiyamugi noodle at Kosher Los Angeles Restaurant website,please click here.
In Japan, there are 3 kinds of noodles: Udon, Soba,and Ramen.In previous entry titled "Noodles in Japan: Udon", I wrote about what Udon is and how you can make it yourself, here, I like to write about Soba.
So,what is Soba?
Soba is buckwheat noodle. One noodle is about thickness of spaghetti and not round shape when you cut the pasta and look from side like spaghetti but rather,square shape when you cut across pasta and look from side. The Soba is made from buckwheat flour, Taro root,Egg white etc. The noodle color is brownish color.
If you visit Kyoto prefecture(western part of Japanese main island),which is tea is famous for, you can get a different kind of soba called Cha soba. Cha soba is green tea soba and noodle is flavored with green tea powder, and color is dark green. It has different flavor from regular buckwheat noodle soba, but very tasty and if you visit Kyoto, it is one of the dishes you may want to try.
In Japan, many families serve soba on New year's eve because soba is believed to be a symbol of longevity. Soba can be served hot or cold and on New year's eve, people eat it hot. During hot summer, many people enjoy cold soba noodle dish called "Zaru Soba".
When you serve soba hot, you will serve the same way to Udon: Soba will be in soy based broth along with chopped green onion etc. When you serve soba cold as "Zaru soba", after noodle is cooked, you will wash the noodle under the cold running water and soba will be served on bamboo plate, and you will get soy sauce based dipping sauce on side. Some people love to add a little bit of wasabi into the dipping sauce to give it a zing.
You can see soba picture at wikipedia website. To visit the wikipedia website to read more on soba, please click here.
I have found youtube video where you can watch how zaru soba (cold buckwheat noodle dish) is served. If you were a blog subscriber or reading this entry from Facebook, please click here to watch the video.
If you visit Morioka city in Iwate prefecture in Japan (Northern part of Japanese main island), there is a soba eating contest called "Wanko soba eating contest". You can see the video from wanko soba contest bellow via youtube video I have found. As you can see, ladies pour small amount of soba onto contestants' bowl and stuck it up and as soon as the contestant finish eating the soba in his bowl, she pour more soba onto his bowl.Judge count the number of bowls stuck up next to the contestant and winner is announced. Wanko soba contest is timed and, to win this contest, you need to eat a lot of servings within limited time.
If you were a blog subscriber or reading this entry from Face book, please click here to watch the To watch the wanko soba contest video.
To eat soba, slurping is considered polite manner in Japan.
Sometimes it is nice change to have different kinds of Noodle. If you had a chance to visit Japan, or had a chance to buy a package of dry soba noodle at Asian store, try cook them and enjoy different flavor of noodle. Soba is very nutritious and tasty.
I have found that some of the youtube video titled soba is not actually a real soba dish. Some of them was actually Udon noodle, some of them were titled as soba although it was hiyamugi noodle. Hiyamugi noodle is as thin as Angel hair pasta if you understand, and made from wheat flour, not buckwheat flour. It is easy to break and cook in a few minutes and it is served hot or cold. To read more on Hiyamugi noodle at Kosher Los Angeles Restaurant website,please click here.
Another interesting blog on Japanese culture and food. I really like to read these, and to know that I can come here later to get a recipe or idea when I get a chance to try some of your suggestions! Thanks for the info!
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It is always nice to hear that you enjoy reading entries on Japanese culture/food. I hope that entries on Japanese culture/food can help many more people understand Japanese culture/food better.
One day,I saw a family wondering around International ail at grocery store.Mother was holding the Japanese cook book in her hand, and she was trying to find the right ingredients for the recipe in the book. I helped them finding what they were looking for,and answered their questions on other ingredients on the shelves and,we had interesting chat.
She asked about difference between Udon,soba noodle etc, and she was ready to try out the new flavor so,I suggested them to try out green tea soba (cha soba),which has deep green tea flavor in the noodle. I hope they liked the cha soba noodle as much as my husband does. Cha soba is one of his favorite Japanese noodle dishes.
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