Noodles
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Soba
Soba (そば or 蕎麦) is a type of thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. It is served either chilled with a dipping sauce, or in hot broth as a noodle soup. Moreover, it is common in Japan to refer to any thin noodle as soba in contrast to udon which are thick noodles made from wheat. It takes three months for buckwheat to be ready for harvest, so people can harvest it four times in a year; it is harvested mainly in spring, summer, and autumn. In Japan, buckwheat is produced mainly in Hokkaido. People call soba that is made with buckwheat that has just been harvested "shin-soba." It has more flavor, sweetness and taste than soba.
In Japan, soba noodles are served in a variety of situations. They are a popular inexpensive fast food at train stations throughout Japan, and are served by exclusive and expensive specialty restaurants. Markets sell dried noodles and men-tsuyu, or instant noodle broth, to make home preparation easy.
Some establishments, especially cheaper and more casual ones, may serve both soba and udon (thick wheat noodles) as they are often served in a similar manner. However, soba is traditionally the noodle of choice for Tokyoites. This tradition originates from the Edo period when the population of Edo (Tokyo), being considerably wealthier than the rural poor, were more susceptible to beri beri due to their high consumption of white rice which is low in thiamine, and are thought to have made up for this by regularly eating thiamine-rich soba. Every neighborhood had one or two soba establishments, many also serving sake, which functioned much like modern cafes where locals would drop by casually.
Udon
Udon (饂飩, うどん) is a type of thick wheat-flour noodle popular in Japanese cuisine.
Udon is usually served hot as noodle soup in a mildly flavored broth, in its simplest form as kake udon, served in kakejiru made of dashi, soy sauce (shōyu), and mirin. It is usually topped with thinly chopped scallions. Other common toppings include tempura, often prawn or kakiage (a type of mixed tempura fritter), or abura age, a type of deep-fried tofu pockets seasoned with sugar, mirin, and soy sauce. A thin slice of kamaboko, a halfmoon-shaped fish cake, is often added. Shichimi can be added to taste.
The flavor of broth and topping vary from region to region. Usually, dark brown broth, made from dark soy sauce (koikuchi shōyu) is used in eastern Japan, and light brown broth, made from light soy sauce (usukuchi shōyu) is used in western Japan. This is even noticeable in packaged instant noodles, which are often sold in two different versions for east and west.
Ramen
Ramen (Katakana: ラーメン; Kanji: 拉麺) is a Japanese noodle dish that originated in China. It tends to be served in a meat-based broth, and uses toppings such as sliced pork (チャーシュー, chāshū), dried seaweed (海苔, nori), kamaboko, green onions, and even corn. Almost every locality or prefecture in Japan has its own variation of ramen, from the tonkotsu ramen of Kyūshū to the miso ramen of Hokkaidō.
Thin, wheat-based noodles with soda water. The dough is set to rise before being pulled.
Somen
Sōmen (素麺) are very thin, white Japanese noodles made of wheat flour. The noodles are usually served cold and are less than 1.3 mm in diameter. The distinction between sōmen and the next thicker wheat noodles hiyamugi and even thicker Japanese wheat noodles udon is that sōmen is stretched while hiyamugi and udon are cut.
Sōmen are usually served cold with a light flavored dipping sauce or tsuyu. The tsuyu is usually a katsuobushi-based sauce that can be flavored with Welsh onion, ginger, or myoga. In the summer, sōmen chilled with ice is a popular meal to help stay cool.
Some restaurants offer "nagashi sōmen" (流しそうめん flowing noodles) in the summer. The noodles are placed in a long flume of bamboo across the length of the restaurant. The flume carries clear, ice-cold water. As the sōmen pass by, diners pluck them out with their chopsticks and dip them in tsuyu. Catching the noodles requires a fair amount of dexterity, but the noodles that aren't caught by the time they get to the end usually aren't eaten, so diners are pressured to catch as much as they can. A few luxurious establishments put their sōmen in real streams so that diners can enjoy their meal in a beautiful garden setting. Machines have been designed to simulate this experience at home.
Sōmen served in hot soup is usually called "nyumen" and eaten in the winter, much like soba or udon are.
A very similar variety of thin wheat flour noodles are called somyeon in Korea and are used in a dish called bibim guksu.
Hiyamugi
Between somen and udon in thickness.
Reimen
Originally a Korean dish, reimen (冷麺; literally "cold noodles") in Japan is a local specialty of Morioka, a city in the Iwate prefecture of northern Honshu, where Korean immigrants since the 1950s have gathered.
Shirataki
Shirataki, often written with the hiragana しらたき are very low carbohydrate, low calorie, thin, translucent, gelatinous traditional Japanese noodles made from the konjac plant. The word "shirataki" means "white waterfall", describing the appearance of these noodles. Largely composed of water and glucomannan, a water-soluble dietary fiber, they have little flavor of their own.
Shirataki noodles can be found both in dry and soft "wet" forms. When wet, they are purchased pre-packaged in liquid. They normally have a shelf life of up to one year. Some brands may require rinsing or par-boiling as the water they are packaged in has an odor that may be unpleasant to those not accustomed to it.
Traditional shirataki noodles have zero net carbohydrates, zero calories, no gluten, and are useful for those on low-carbohydrate diets.[1] Tofu-based shirataki-style noodles are becoming increasingly popular. They have a much shorter shelf life and require refrigeration even before opening. Tofu-based noodles contain a minimal amount of carbohydrates.[2]
Some content adapted from Wikipedia.org.
