Japan's Soba & Udon

About this book

Japan eats two great native noodles — and they could hardly be less alike. This book is the complete guide to both of them.

200 entries in eight parts, each in one fixed format — Origins & Story, Taste & Technique, Where & When, and Manners & Enjoyment. Soba, the buckwheat noodle: juwari's pure grain and the eight-two classic, Sarashina's white refinement, Nagano's mountain styles, Togakushi's bundles, Izumo's tiered box, wanko's one-bite bowls, the craft of milling, the aged kaeshi sauce, the slurp and the cloudy soba-yu. Udon, the wheat noodle: Sanuki's chew and Kagawa's self-service system, Inaniwa's silk, Mizusawa, Ise's soft dark bowl, Hakata's gentleness, the dashi of east and west. Then the bowls' company — duck and herring, walnut and sesame, the curry both noodles claim — the platform counters and standing shops of the railway age, the noodle year from New Year's Eve soba to summer somen, and the fields, hands, prices and futures the whole culture stands on.

The 200 entries are items of noodle culture, not shop reviews: no shop is ranked and no shop's prices or hours are asserted — shops change them; cultures endure. Soba allergy is treated plainly and seriously, and no health claims are made for any food. A glossary and an index by part and theme close the book, so you can plan a journey by noodle instead of by map alone.