Noodles Part 2: Soba

Dried soba noodles.



      Soba noodles are definitely Nihon ryori, or a uniquely Japanese food. They became popular in Japan during the Tokugawa or Edo period (1603-1867) when many Japanese (especially the poor) subsided on white rice alone. Because white rice has insignificant amounts of B vitamins many people suffered from a B vitimin (Thiamin) deficiency called Beriberi which causes terrible symptoms in the nervous system as well as in various other functions of the body. It was discovered that by eating soba which is high in Thiamin, one could avoid the debilatating syptoms of Beriberi.
     Soba is a favorite among Tokyoites, whereas in other areas of Japan Udon is more popular. Soba is probably my favorite type of Japanese noodle. They have a nutty, slightly sweet flavor and a less glutinous texture that I'm quite partial to. It is somewhat similar to a whole wheat thin spagetti. Soba noodles are thin and made of newly harvested buckwheat called shin-soba. Soba is a fast growing grain that takes only three months to harvest, so it can be harvested up to four times in a year. It also grows well in mountainous regions with poor soil. Often, there is some wheat flour added to soba noodles as a binder to the gluten-free buckwheat flour, usually a ratio of 80% buckwheat to 20% wheat flour, but you can find high quality 100% soba noodles in Japan. There are fresh handmade varieties as well as dried ones. I typically use a dried variety that comes in individual portions (as pictured below).



       Soba can be served both warm and cold. The most important step in preparing soba is to wash the noodles by gently rinsing them in cool water and rubbing them to remove some of the starch off the surface of the noodles. This process allows the flavor and texture of the soba to stand out better. At that point the noodles can be served with a strong flavored dipping sauce, or in a more diluted hot or cold soup called mentsuyu. Mentsuyu is a broth made from kaeshi (sauce of soy sauce, sugar and mirin) and diluted with dashi (basic Japanese stock made from konbu (kelp), katsuo boshi (dried fish flakes), and/ or dried shitake mushrooms). You can find instructions for making your own kaeshi and dashi on the awesome website below. Remember: Kaeshi + Dashi = Mentsuyu

Making mentsuyu: http://justhungry.com/basics-kaeshi-soba-and-udon-noodle-soup-or-sauce-base

Detailed instructions for cooking Soba: http://justhungry.com/basics-cold-soba-noodles-dipping-sauce  





Benjamin loves eating soba...

    We eat soba very often at home as it makes for a nice quick and light dinner. Benjamin absolutely LOVES soba, you can ask him any time of the day if he wants some soba and he will undoubtedly answer "Yes" with enthusiasm, and then ask for green onions and fresh ginger to mix into the mentsuyu. That kid LOVES ginger, he eats huge piles of pickled ginger when we go out for sushi...but that post is soon to come. The following is something I have been cooking up for vegetarian nights at home lately. It is a very non-traditional soba preparation, but my soy allergy has been rather unfriendly lately and I have been doing anything I can to avoid soy sauce, so I use Oyster sauce and Sriracha instead as flavoring in my recipe for Soba-don (Soba bowl). You could of course add any other desired ingredients for more flavor. I hope you will try it!




                                                                Soba-don
Ingredients:
3-4 portions of dried Soba noodles (I make one extra for the husband)

5-6 cups chopped veggies: Bok choy, mushrooms: enoki, shimeji, and shitake, and eggplant
* Use what's available to you. Shelled edamame, any mushrooms, diced sweet potatoes and cabbage would be great in this too.

2 tsp. vegetable, or coconut oil

Green onion, 2 stalks whites and greens

2 cloves garlic, minced

Black pepper

Oyster Sauce (to taste, up to 3 TBS.)

1-2 tsp. Rice vinegar

Toppings:
Sriracha, sambal or other chili paste (to taste)

fresh grated ginger

*Yuzu paste, wasabi, sesame oil, and sesame seeds would all be good too.

Directions:

Cook soba noodles to package instructions. Typically they will take around 5-7 minutes on a low boil. You can follow the directions on the link above for cooking perfect soba noodles.

Prep all of your veggies. Chop them into 1/2 inch, to 1 inch pieces for easy chopsticking. I slice half of the green onions in the veggie stir-fry and dice the other half  to reserve and use as a topping. Heat a large frying pan or wok on medium-high heat and add oil. Once oil is heated add your veggies that will take longer to cook, I usually give the eggplant an extra minute or two before I add the rest to prevent over cooking. Toss in your minced garlic and the remaining vegetables and stir-fry until tender and start to brown up a bit, about 3-5 minutes. Next, add in your oyster sauce and season to taste with black pepper and rice vinegar. Stir-fry for one more minute and turn off the heat.

At this point I take my rinsed soba noodles and run them under hot water to warm them up a bit, just for a few seconds so they aren't chilly. Then I portion them into bowls and cover the top with the stir-fried vegetables. I garnish with the diced green onion, a bit of fresh grated ginger and of course lots of Sriracha!

Takes about 20 minutes to make and serves 3-4 people.


Japanese Dining Custom:

Benjamin typically reminds us before we start eating to be thankful for our meal. Every night at dinner he stops, makes eye contact with each of us and we take his lead. He puts his hands together palm to palm and loudly expresses his "Itadakimasu!" with a slight bow of his head... it's amazing and wonderful how easily kids pick these things up. So without hesitaion, we have incorporated this custom into our daily dinner ritual.

In Japan you start your meal by saying:

Itadakimasu! (ee-tah-dahki-mas)- literally "Thanks for this feast!"

and when you are finished eating you say:

Gochiso sama deshta! (Go-chee-so-sama-desh-tah) - which means "it really was a feast!", and show completion and gratitude for a full stomach.



Here are some videos I thought were interesting regarding Soba:

Interesting travel video on eating Soba in Izushi, Japan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F2wrQsK4S4

If you are more visual and prefer to see someone make soba, here is a cute Obachan (Grandma) making Zaru soba with subtitles in many languages:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLnKQJJX3gw



Arigato Gozaimasu Readers!

Noodles Part 1: Ramen

Shio Ramen with extra egg from Kamome-syokudo ( No. 5) at the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum

       There was time in my life when Ramen noodles were just those little square blocks of dried noodles with little packets of  thoroughly MSG-ed flavoring...Though that technically is "Ramen", once you have the REAL stuff, I promise you, you will never willingly go back to those little blocks. Well, maybe if you liked them more than I ever did. I still daydream about the first time I had the real deal in Vancouver, B.C. last year...it was by far one of my most memorable meals. It was a cold, rainy February night as we waited in line to get into Kintaro: Handmade Tonkotsu Ramen. Finally we were packed into the warmth inside, placed our orders with the lady at front and then we were assigned seats at chairs elbow to elbow with strangers. Soon after we were served up a huge bowl of piping hot, rich, porky broth that had been carefully tended to for several hours, swimming with handmade noodles and tender slices of roasted pork topped with extra pork fat, green onions, corn and a huge scoop of garlic....one word...eyes closed...Mmmm. I was instantly captivated at the culinary promise of my future home in Japan.
      Now after spending almost a year in Japan I have tasted many varieties of Ramen in which there are literally endless combinations of flavors. I'll bet you could spend each day eating a different bowl of Ramen and never have exactly the same combination...in your life. Maybe I'll actually do the math later...okay probably not. Instead, here's a little bit about Ramen.


History:
      Ramen (actually all noodles) originated in China nearly 4000 years ago...which means the Chinese were slurping down noodles well before Jesus was born!  Since there is no "L" sound in Japanese and the "R" sound is pronounced somewhere in between the English "L" and "D", a dish originally called something like "La-Mien" in China, is now referred to as Ramen. However, Ramen didn't become widespread in Japan until much later during the Meiji Period (1800's). After WWII, Ramen noodles became a much needed source of calories for the starving Japanese population, many of who had spent most of their lives eating only rice. Over time the Japanese carefully fostered the elements of Ramen and have created what is now a uniquely Japanese food. In fact, it's one of two official National dishes. Every area of Japan has it's own unique style of Ramen. In 1958, the founder of Japan's Nissin foods, Momofuku Ando, discovered the method for making instant Ramen noodles propelling their popularity all over the world. The instant variety has since become a Japanese Cultural Icon.

*I can't wait to visit the Cup Noodles Museum in Yokohama!

Noodles:
      The noodles are made of wheat flour, salt, water and kansui (a special water that contains both sodium and potassium carbonate). The minerals in kansui are what give Ramen noodles their signature yellowy color. There are several varieties of noodles, it varies by the people making them. They can be as thin as angel hair pasta, or much thicker than spagetti they can also they can be curly (wrinkled), or flat. It looks to be quite a feat of physical fitness just making these noodles in the traditional way! Here's a link to a cool video of some noodles being made up in Hakone Yumoto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=c5kmVgYXHXk

4 Main types of Broth:

     The broth for Ramen is typically pork-based, but can be made with any combination of pork, chicken, vegetables, dried shitake mushrooms, konbu seaweed, katsuo boshi (dried skipjack tuna flakes), or niboshi (small dried sardines). Each broth is then seasoned to in one of the following ways.

Shio - "Salt" a lighter, often clear broth seasoned with salt. The noodles are often straight, but my favorite has large flat noodles. Common toppings include green onions, garlic, cabbage, beans sprouts and soft-boiled eggs.

Tonkotsu-"Pork bone" This stock has a rich, hearty pork flavor. The thick, creamy broth (almost like gravy or melted butter) is the result of a very long cooking process that allows the fat and collagen from pork bones to become suspended in the liquid. It takes at least 12 hours of cooking for this to happen, and some tonkotsu broths are cooked for up to 60 hours. Most often has thin flat or straight noodles. Common toppings are pickled ginger, green onions, sesame oil and of course cha-shiu (roasted pork belly).

Shoyu- "Soy Sauce" Since the main flavoring of this broth is soy sauce, it is often recognized by it's clear, brown color  this broth has a savory, salty, "umami" flavor. It often has curly (wrinkled) noodles. Common toppings are corn, nori (seaweed), menma (marinated bamboo shoots),

Miso- "fermented soybean paste" This is the "uniquely Japanese" type of Ramen originated up in Japan's North Island of Hokkaido. A Chicken, or fish based broth is seasoned with substantial amounts of miso paste making for a rich, thick and nutty soup. I have also seen sesame paste and peanuts included in some miso ramen. Common toppings are butter, corn, steamed greens (like spinach or bok choy).

In general:
 Ramen can be any combination of these broths, toppings and flavors. There are also several spicy variations that use spicy bean paste, spicy sesame oil, chili garlic or even a special hot sauce may be an option. Each shop will have a small array of toppings at your table so you can season your Ramen to suit your individual tastes. This is the line-up of additional seasonings at our regular Ramen joint.

Additional seasonings include: Sesame oil, white pepper, sesame seeds, chili bean paste,
ground garlic, pickled ginger and some pretty amazing hot sauce!

                           

                                 Special salt (Shio) Tonkatsu  Ramen from the above place.

Thick,  flat noodles...there are always WAY too many noodles for me...but look at that broth!

Thank goodness I have a noodle disposal system so I can mostly drink the delicious broth...

   Marcus and I recently took advantage of a free day while Ben was at school, so in the name of "research" we went to the Shin-Yokohama Raumen ( I don't know why they used this spelling) Museum. This place is really cool, it's an "eating amusement park" of sorts that takes you back to the year that Instant Ramen was invented, 1958 (the Showa Period). There are nine Ramen-yas from all different areas of Japan, each specializes in a different type of Ramen. Check out the link to their website below for more information. Here are pictures of what we tried:

We started at Shop No. 9 (Nidaime-genkostu-ya) a Tokyo style Shio Ramen place, but sadly I didn't get a picture before we tucked into this one...Hey, we were both really hungry....and it was really tasty. Their cha-shiu pork belly was exceptional, and I loved the way the green onions are chopped up really small so you can drink them up with the soup. This was our favorite by far. The others were just okay, but it was a very fun experience and we can't wait to go back and try out some other stuff.

Shio ramen, with flat noodles

From restaurant No. 4 (Taiho Ramen), on (L) Basic tonkotsu, and on (R)Spicy tonkotsu with Black garlic oil and fried garlic bits. I was greatful to find that each restaurant offers a small bowl for around 550 Yen (about $6) so you can have a good taste, but don't get too full so you can try a few other places.

From No. 5 ( Kamome-syukudo)
      We tried the ramen pictured at the very top of this post, but I saw this pork belly on the menu and had to try it...it had a little dollop of spicy chinese mustard on each slice and it was as delicious as it looks.

    Ramen has quickly become one of my ultimate comfort foods, there is nothing better to warm you up on a cold winter night or to nourish you when you are feeling a bit under the weather. To me it's just as fun to eat as it tastes good. There's a sweet satisfaction to the rythym of loudly slurping your noodles and filling your spoon with tasty broth to wash them down. You always wear the evidence on your shirt as there's an inevitable bit of splatter. The toppings are just, well the icing on the cake. I crave Ramen often and I am glad there are so many options, because Ramen is a meal than can be somewhat healthy, or can just as easily leave you comatose.  Sometimes it's just so good you can't stop eating. I'm looking forward to continuing to try as many different Ramen shops as I possibly can in the next few years. I hope you will try to find a good Ramen shop in a city near you...and if you can get the oppurtunity to go up to that spot Vancouver, B.C. it will be well worth it.

Links:
Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum   http://www.raumen.co.jp/ramen/

Cup Noodles Museum http://www.cupnoodles-museum.jp/english/index.html

My favorite Japanese Food blog: http://www.justhungry.com/visit-shin-yokohama-raumen-ramen-museum

Typical Japanese TV program that is showing how Ramen is eaten...notice the slurping! It's quite entertaining. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZhvSSyotA0

Other Credits:
ramenlicious.com/encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramen

So it Begins: The Japanese Food Series

     So I have finally come to the point where I am comfortable enough to start writing about Japanese food. I am by no means an expert on Japanese cuisine, just a gaijin (foreigner) who has become captivated by the fare of my host country. From the outside Asia is often seen as the land of rice, and for Japan (at least to me) it was the land of rice and fish. Before I moved here I knew very little about Japanese food, other than the typical "Americanized" sushi and Gyoza joint...and as for Teriyaki, it's not even really Japanese food. Being that there is a Teriyaki place on nearly every corner of the greater Seattle Metro area, they had me fooled. Yummy, yes. Japanese? No. I have yet to see Teriyaki chicken anywhere, or a California roll for that matter. I have only seen it offered as a burger flavor.
     
      There are two sort of categories within Japanese food, the first is Nihon Ryori. These are unique and traditional Japanese dishes. Things like Miso soup, Soba and udon noodles and sushi are only a few examples of Japan's homegrown foods. There are a multitude of fish, shellfish, seaweeds and other ocean based items, as well as many vegetables and some fruit. Japan's climate and terrain doesn't offer much in the way of raising animals or growing large grain crops. So they were forced by the landscape to rely mainly on the bounty of the sea.

      The second type is called Washoku. Washoku are foods that have been imported from foreign countries and adapted to Japanese tastes. This is similar to much of American cuisine. Just as in the US, you can find Italian food, burgers, pizza, curry, bakeries, coffee shops and even Mexican food everywhere. Ramen is actually also a Washoku food, since it originated in China. The only difference is that these foods that are familiar to Westerners often have a Japanese twist, sometimes it's awesome, and sometimes it's just...different. For instance, you may go into a place with a name like "Fresh Burger" and order what looks like a typical hamburger...but find that it has a soy based sauce and the burger is actually made out of ground pork instead of beef. It's not bad, just maybe not quite what you'd expect. The reality is that beef is very expensive in Japan. So pork is used more often, also it may just be that the Japanese prefer or have grown to prefer the taste of ground pork to beef. I have found much of this food to be very good though, some of it even better than what you would typically find in the US.

        The thing that really stands out about the food you find in Japan (and Japanese culture in itself) is the careful attention to detail. People in general tend to put much more care into their work here whether they are making sandwiches behind a counter, or painting your house. I have yet to witness an employee being unprofessional, disrespectful or careless. Employees of fast food restaurants don't face the same social stigma as they do in America. They are paid better and generally at least seem to have a little pride in the job they do no matter what it is. I have said several times that everything seems to be just a little bit better here. Sometimes the smallest things really make the biggest difference.

Four main kinds of Japanese Noodles: Udon, Soba, Somen and Ramen (clockwise).

   
     So anyways...my point is that I am going to start writing a series of entries based on various foods I have happily discovered while in Japan. My first entry (we'll call it a mini series) will actually be broken into four parts. Each part will cover one of four main types of noodles eaten in Japan. Before you read on there are some things you should know about NOODLES!

- Noodles are a staple in Japan and are eaten just about as much as rice.


-Noodles made their appearance in Japan somewhere between 794-1185 AD.

-ALL noodles in are served both hot and cold depending on the season of the year.

-MOST IMPORTANTLY: It is polite to slurp your noodles! Eating loudly is seen as a compliment. It let's the chef know you are enjoying your food. Some say it also makes the noodles taste better. I know this is hard for some of you whose parents stressed table manners, but I promise you...breaking your parents rules is fun! Manners are different in any culture, and the Japanese do respect that by differentiating. There is little slurping of Italian pasta for example.

I hope you enjoy! Please feel free to comment, or ask any questions!



P.S. I apologize for the serious lack of photos...I am having some issues with blogger not allowing me to upload photos. So instead heres a link to ridiculous video of small Japanese ladies engaged in a noodle eating contest...I urge you to watch...it amazes me!

              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPVHueU24yY