The Japanese Soba Culture - Soba noodles go round

  

What Is Soba?
'Soba' is a Japanese word for buckwheat and soba noodles are made from soba flour.
Soba noodles are one of the most popular dishes in Japanese food culture and it originated as a kind of fast food like sushi during the Edo (pre-modern Tokyo) period. It is highly nutritious with low calories, and it is considered healthy vegetarian food.

A dark brown colour of noodles implies high buckwheat content (the soba noodles pictured above are made of 100% buckwheat).

If not 100% buckwheat, the noodles are mixed with other ingredients such as wheat flour. Green tea and matcha soba (pictured above), 'ume (plum) soba, 'sakura' (cherry blossom) soba are beautiful with green and pink natural colours, and are gaining in popularity even outside Japan.

Soba Noodle Dishes

Cold soba noodles are perfect in the hot and humid Japanese summer. It is often served as 'zaru soba' at noodle restaurants. 'Zaru soba' are presented on a bamboo mesh called a 'zaru' and the cold noodles help to chill the body.

Combining 'nori' (dry, flavoured seaweed), thinly cut 'naganegi' (longer and thicker than Welsh onion or Japanese leek), and wasabi as toppings, you simply dip the noodles in a soy-based sauce. It is a very quick and easy meal at home, too.

 

You put the soba noodles in boiled water just like pasta without adding salt, drain and wash them with running cold water to remove excess starch as well as increase the flavour of buckwheat.

Soba noodles in hot broth are good for the cold winter. Unlike cold soba noodles in which you enjoy the simplicity of soba, hot soba noodles offer a variety of flavours depending on the ingredients you put on top of the boodles. 'Yuoba soba' in above picture is a good example, adding flavoured 'yuba' (bean curd skins), shiitake mushroom, beans, kamaboko (fish cake), as toppings giving the dish different textures as well as colours.

 

Other Soba Products

Japanese soba noodles are so popular, and soba lovers even travel far to the countryside in search for hidden soba. The term, soba, has become almost synonymous with other types of noodles such as 'yakisoba' (stir-fried noodles) and 'chuka' soba (literally 'Chinese soba' but better known in English as ramen).

 

Soba can be used for many different products as well.

Roasted soba is turned to deliciously flavoured tea.

Soba 'shochu' is a popular Japanese liquor distilled from buckwheat.

Pillows made from soba hulls (the outside shell of the grain) were common the past and can still be found today.

 

Soba Noodles Dining - Past and Present

Soba noodles have traditionally been Japanese fast food throughout its history. When you stroll near train stations, you may encounter many 'tachigui' (standing-only eateries) soba noodle restaurants or bars. They are inexpensive, quick and healthy - the ideal fast food. 

 Japanese office workers lined up in front of a 'tachigui' (standing-only eatery) soba bar at lunch time in Tokyo. Because the customers are served so quickly, you won't wait too long.

Plastic fast display in front of a Japanese soba noodle restaurant. Japanese plastic food craftsmen are world-renowned for their ability to replicate the delicious appearance of dishes.

Peeping through the door at 'tachigui'soba bar. No women are found, and it is crowded with many male Japanese office workers in dark suits gobbling up soba noodles without sitting and putting down their bags. Truly fast food!

 

However, soba noodles can also be exclusive and speciality restaurants are ranked as top-end Japanese cuisine. In those restaurants, soba chefs make their own unique soba boodles, often from organic buckwheat flour using high quality water.

At the other end of the spectrum are instant soba noodles. The 'Midori no Tanuki' in above picture is the most popular instant soba noodles products in Japan. You simply pour boiled water into the bowl and wait for three minutes.

 

Soba Noodles in Japanese Culture

Soba noodles look like spaghetti but you never eat them with forks. Always use chopsticks or we will send report you to the soba police (just kidding:-)). Most importantly, you are supposed to slurp with loud noise conveying the deliciousness of the dish. Mind you some people may have soba allergy.

 

Soba noodles are not just for eating but a tool for greeting. When you move to a new home, it was common to give a pack of dried soba noodles, called 'hicckoshi soba' (moving-in soba), to your neighbours in the eastern part of Japan.

 

The most important part of Japanese soba culture is the 'toshikoshi soba'. 'Toshikoshi' literally means year-crossing, and Japanese people eat soba noodles on the New Year's Eve as the last meal of the year. Because soba dough is spread long and thing to make soba boodles, it refers longevity and prosperity. Buckwheat is also a tough plant that survives in harsh weather, so eating soba ensures good health and fortune. It is also said soba noodles are soft and easily to chew, meaning that it cuts off bad memories and troubles in the old year to welcome a bright year ahead. 'Soba' is also a homonym for 'near' in the Japanese language, so eating soba with family on New Year's Eve implies the strong ties with family members.

 

Lastly, eating soba could be entertaining.

'Wanko soba' is an eating style where the soba noodles are served full mouthful quantity in small bowls. These days, wanko soba is eaten as a one-person competition throughout Japan; you try to see how many bowls of soba noodles can be eaten in a given time. Wanko soba originally came from Iwate prefecture, northern part of Japan, and the All-Japan Wanko Soba Eating Championship is held in the region every year.

 

Watch how fast the competitors eat!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSRmH0bf2SE

 

It is quick to eat, easy to digest, good for body, and fun to eat the soba noodles. The soba noodles are not just food but it provides an important meaning for Japanese culture.

The Culture of soba noodles goes around.

 

*Special thanks to Ms. Hiromi Adachi, the chief, and Hanamaki Tourism and Convention Bureau for the contribution of photos and a video.

 

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The Authentic Japanese Crab Cuisine in Osaka ★ Eating crabs in many different ways

(Above picture from 'Kani Doraku', Osaka Dotonbori main restaurant: http://douraku.co.jp.e.at.hp.transer.com/ in English)

Popping eyes, moving legs and claws ... the giant crab is welcoming you to the restaurant.

The sensational giant 'moving crab' sign appeared on the busy Dotonbori street of Osaka, Japan in 1962. It has since become an icon of the city, and the restaurant, 'Kani Doraku', has become one of the most popular crab speciality restaurants in Japan.

For most Japanese crab lovers, crabs are considered a winter food, and are cooked in a hot pot style dish such as 'shabu shabu'. But the summer crab cuisine is also something you shouldn't miss.

The crab course menu is a bit pricey, ranging from 3,500 yen to 10,000 yen at the restaurant. Here is the 4,300 yen course meal - you can't go wrong with this! 

It starts with an entree - boiled crab meats with some appetisers. The little Japanese plates are pieces of art.

The crab 'sashimi' (raw crab meat) is unusual, but so delicious as it melts in your mouth.  'Chawanmushi', on the right in the above picture, is a unique egg custard dish with crab (mind you it is not sweet). The crab shells on the left shine beautifully.

 The baked crabs smell like seashore BBQ. Sweet and delicious.

 The crab tempura ... crispy, crunchy, and again, sweet.

The crab 'kamameshi', a Japanese traditional way of cooking rice in an iron pot, follows near the end of the course. The contrast of the colours between the black iron pot and red crab shell is beautiful. Subtle but awesome.

The clear soup with crabmeat stock is served at the end of the main course. It smoothes out your tummy.

The Japanese traditional course meal often ends with fresh fruits. It was a plate with pineapples and dark cherries. The calculated combination is perfect as an after-crab desert.

The restaurant also offers a special crab bento box (boxed lunch) for children.

It is not a simple 'kids lunch box' but it is a full of the world of crabs.

Before leaving, the cashier at the restaurant gave us a crab 'origami'.

How can people make the complicated origami art with one piece of paper?

Why don't you try the 'crab' cuisine as well as crab 'origami'?!

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15 healthy hospital food in a Japanese hospital★

The hospital food used to be dry, cold and tasteless. It was the impression everyone had.

However, it is an old story in the Japanese hospitals and here are 15 healthy hospital meals for a middle aged Japanese woman.

Day 1 Lunch: 493kcal

'Shichibu-zuki' (70% polished) steamed rice, Chicken broiled with soy sauce, spinach, Koya-dofu (freeze dried bean curd) stewed with vegetables, dressed yam and 'okura' (Japanese gumbo), and grapes.

Day 1 Dinner: 658kcal

Steamed rice 150g, fish stock clear soup, cutlass fish 80g with lemon butter sauce, pumpkins with chicken mince sauce, and sliced radish and carrot in vinegar dressing.

Day 2 Breakfast:

Rice porridge ('gobu-gayu' = rice:water = 1:10) 250g, grilled salmon 40g, miso soup with cabbage, stewed Chinese cabbage, and milk.

 Day 2 Lunch: 506kcal

Rice porridge ('zen-gayu' = rice:water = 1:5)250g, 'tororo' (grated yam) with flavor, grilled fish 80g,  stewed 'ganmo' (deep fried bean curd mixed with thinly sliced vegetable) and vegetables, and boiled green vegetable.

Day 3 Dinner: 689kcal

'Omu-rice' (rice omelet, or stirred fried tomato flavoured rice wrapped in a thin omelet),

salad with cheese, kiwi fruit, and vegetable and fruit mixed juice.

Day 4 Breakfast: 481kcal

Steamed rice 150g, miso soup with Chinese cabbage, Japanese-style omelet, seasoned cabbage, and yogurt flavoured juice.

Day 4 Lunch: 622kcal

'Shichibu-tzuki' (70% polished) steamed rice, mackerel cooked in miso, potatoes with chicken mince sauce, and cucumber seasoned in vinegar.

Day 4 Dinner: 502kcal

'Terriyaki' chicken on top of steamed rice in a bowl, egg soup, bean starch thin noodles salad, and almond jelly with fruits.

Day 5 Breakfast: 479kcal

Two sliced bread (warm), vegetable saute, a small block of pineapple, and yogurt flavoured juice.

Day 5 Lunch: 428kcal

'Shichibu-zuki' (70% polished) steamed rice 150g, white-miso flavoured salmon, stirred fried bean curd refuse, and seasoned Chinese cabbage. 

Day 5 Dinner: 656kcal

'Kakiage' (deep-fried vegetable tempra) with soba noodle in soup, green vegetable salad, yogurt, and melon.

Day 6 Breakfast: 431kcal

150g of steamed rice, miso soup with Chinese radish, miso-flavoured fish, seasoned cabbage, plum pickle, and yogurt.

Day 6 Lunch: 537kcal

'Shichibu-zuki' (70% polished) steamed rice 150g, hamburg stake with broccoli,

 'kimpira gobou' (chopped burdock roots and carrots cooked in sugar and soy sauce), yam and 'okura', and 'shimeji' mushrooms in graded radish sauce.

Day 6 Dinner: 601kcal

Steamed rice 150g, flavoured (blue) fish 80g, beef and bean curd in sugar and soy sauce flavoured sauce, Chinese cabbage pickles, and grapes.

Day 7 Breakfast: 525kcal

Sliced bread 80g (warm), butter and strawberry jam, saute with cabbage and ham, a block of pineapple, and milk.

Close your eyes and imagine the food is served in beautiful Japanese plates and bowls. Please imagine the meals are brought by not nurse but a lady in kimono.

It is an old fashion but highly recommended low calorie and low cholesterol Japanese home cuisine.

Applause to the Japanese hospital food! Hooray!!!

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Yummy & Healthy Japnaese School Lunch ★ Book Review: ''Tokyo Adachi Ward School Lunchroom'' in 2011

'How was your day at school?'
I ask my 8 years old daughter who goes to a local community (public) school everyday.
She always replies, 'The school lunch was yummy!'

That is good!

The boring and tasteless school lunch is an old story and even a recipe book called, ''The School Lunchroom in Tokyo, Adachi Ward - well-balanced meals with the key 12 nutrition, aiming for No.1 in Japan'' was published last year (Japanese language only).

The recipe book is a little arranged for home use but it has the same concept for school meal: good for well-being with balanced nutrition; good for dietary and mental education -  practise respect for the nature and the people who cook, cleanliness and proper table manners.

According to the recipe book, the school lunch in a manciple, Adachi Ward, offers three to four different dishes for each lunch - the main (rice, noodles, and others), a soup, the main/side vegetables, and a  dessert (often fruits).

There are three key points that the school nutritionist cannot miss out:

1) Well-balanced with 12 nutrition - Protein, Liloid, Carbohydrate, Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin, C, Dietary fibre;

2) Calorie around 650kcal per meal with less than 5g of salt;

3) Less than 300 yen per head per meal.

This book also introduces the ingredients of the seasons in each chapters.

The daily school dishes are listed in a handout that children receive from the head nutritionist at school, as well as the local government HP, along with useful information on food and healthy eating habits.

Each children are appointed as lunch staff in a team and take responsibility to look after school lunch for their class: prepare, serve and clean up after lunch which gives school children a real work experience. It also gives a chance to build a sense of service and a spirit of harmony.

Good-bye to a colourful lunch box in Japanese kindergarten which was even introduced in BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16069217 as well as in Jaimie Oliver's web http://www.jamieoliver.com/au/news/japan-s-school-lunches-a-new-artform, and big welcome to school lunch in Japanese primary schools.

The children cannot wait for school lunch tomorrow - Korean bibimbap, gelatin noodles soup, pineapple jelly, and milk - an international cuisine.

Thank you for yummy, yummy school lunch, wishing I was there, too.

Y★

Fun dining at Sushi Train ★ 'Kaiten zushi' in Tokyo

People may have different expectations for sushi. Some may prefer sitting at a wooden counter, overlooking the disciplinarian sushi chef and appreciate the subtle flavour and its presentation at upmarket sushi restaurants. Others may just enjoy sushi as a type of fast-food in family-friendly sushi restaurants.

The latter is well known as 'kaiten zushi' (literally means 'rotating sushi', often translated as 'conveyor belt' sushi bar, but more familiar with the terms as 'sushi train' or 'sushi belt').

The 'kaiten zushi' restaurants in the suburbs often have a large space of car parking and there are more than 100 seats including tables and counters in the restaurant.

The 'fast' food means more for this type of restaurants. It is the 'speed'!

First, you make orders by touching iPad sized touch panel menu. Of course, you can just pick up the plates of choice rotating on the belt if you are starving.

Don't worry too much about the price. Almost all the sushi plates which come with two sushi pieces only cost 105 yen in this type of restaurants. It is really family-friendly, or perhaps parents-friendly dining out.

The electric orders are sent to the kitchen in the back room and here they come ... by a fast train!!!

There are three layers which carry sushi; the ordinary sushi conveyor belt at the bottom where you can pick up any plates as you wish, and the middle and the top layers are the rails for the fast trains which bring the orders at your table. Not only children but even grown-ups enjoy watching how they come.    



The great part of '105 yen kaiten zushi' restaurants is not only they offer sushi but a various type of dishes like chicken fries, chips, noodles, sweets, ice creams and lots more.

The highlight of all for children is the slot game on the touch panel when people order some designated menu.

It is obviously not in the course of the city tour, but '105 yen kaiten zushi' restaurants is a place you fill up your stomach as well as fulfilling your heart with eye-opening Japanese fast-food culture.

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'Suji Yaki'@ Kiji Okonomiyaki Restraunt ★ More than fabulous!

Above picture called 'Suji Yaki' at Kiji (http://www.o-kizi.jp/index.html - Japanese only)

'Okonomiyaki' is one of the most famous Japanese casual cuisine. It is often described as Japanese pancake or pizza but it is neither sweet nor cheesy.

'Okonomiyaki' literally means 'grill what you like' so you put any toppings like pork, beef, seafood in the batter of flour, sliced cabbage, eggs, fish stock etc. When it is nicely cooked, it is topped with sweet soy sauce, mayonnaise, dried fish (bonito) powder or flakes, and dried seaweed as you like.

It was originally came from the west part of Japan like Hiroshima and Osaka and now it becomes the national beloved dish.

It is common that long queue of people are waiting to get in during lunch time. Your order is taken while you are waiting outside the restaurant and then the food is cooked in the back. When you sit down at the table, your order is served quickly and okonomiyaki is bought on to the griddle in front of you to keep it warm and sizzling.

Okonomiyaki Restaurant 'Kiji'

Address: Tokyo Bldg. TOKIA B1F, 2-7-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Phone: 03-3216-3123

Above 'suji yaki' is a type of okonomiyaki with toppings of stewed beef and lots of 'kujo negi' on top, similar to Welsh onion typically brought from Kyoto region. Indeed, it is the yummiest of all!

No matter how fussy you are, you would like the dishes in lovely atmosphere.

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Fugu (puffer fish) - the hidden Japanese cuisine

When you think of the typical Japanese cuisine, you may come up with the dishes such as sushi, tempura, sukiyaki, and teppanyaki. These are the popular menu at the Japanese restaurants in overseas as far as I know. But if you had ever lived in Japan, you could think of more and I assume 'fugu' is one of them. I have to confess that the 'fugu nabe' (the puffer fish hot-pot) is one of the dishes I missed a lot while I lived in overseas.

I call the fish in the above picture as 'fugu' since that is what we, Japanese people call. It could be translated to a globe fish, blow fish, puffer fish, bubble fish, etc. but I don't know exactly what is the appropriate word to describe the fish above. In Japanese, it is written as 'river pig' in kanji.

The 'fugu' is one of the most celebrated dishes in Japan. It is lethally poisonous and the fugu chefs have to have a special licence to cook the fugu by the law in Japan.

The 'fugu' meal course could be consisted differently depending on the restaurants but here is an example what a middle-class Japanese family could enjoy the meal.

First, you cannot miss 'tessa' in 'fugu' course menu - sashimi, raw fish, of fugu as above picture. It is sliced so thin and you could put 'kabosu', green citrus fruit, and curl 'konegi' & 'naganegi' - similar to Welsh onion - in sliced raw 'fugu' as you wish.

As an option, you could have 'fugu kara-age' - deep fried 'fugu' as the picture above. It is very yummy indeed.

The main dish, the'fugu nabe' - 'fugu hot pot', comes as above. You may not like to imagine but some of the fresh meat of 'fugu' still move on the plate.

You put the 'fugu' and other vegetables into the hot pot and cook for a while. After the fugu and vegetables are nicely cooked, you put them in 'ponze', a citrus-based sauce, and eat them.

The best of all of 'fugu nabe' for me is the 'ojiya' or 'zosui' - a rice soup as the above picture.

'Fugu' could be poisonous but it is SO yummy. Whether you take risk or not, it is the way you could enjoy the Japanese winter.

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