Cold Summer Noodles: Iced Soba with Karami Daikon, Beni Shoga and Onsen Tamago

After I did this article on my favorite cold udon at Tsunamichi I thought that I ought to do a recipe post too. I somehow came up with this simple recipe that is really quite great. Unfortunately the ingredients are not readily available overseas, I think. However, if you are a real foodie, you could easily grow the radishes and make the pickled beni shoga ginger yourself.

The Ingredients
nama (fresh) soba or udon
karami bitter daikon radish
beni shoga pickled ginger
tsuyu (dashi-broth based sauce)

Cold Summer Noodle Ingredients: Nama (Fresh) Soba, Karami Daikon (Radish), Beni Shoga (Ginger)

I made umeboshi this year, for the first time, so I have two big plastic buckets in my kitchen full of pickling plums. One variety includes fresh ginger and the ume and ginger are naturally colored a deep and beautiful (and tasty) red with heaps of red perilla shiso leaves. (ume articles on the way)

I just reached into the umeboshi barrel and pulled out some beni shoga for this dish. If you like beni shoga, you have to make this at home. It is really not very difficult. Just buy a bunch of ‘shin shoga’ new ginger when it is in season. You would probably just have to grow your own red shiso as you need quite a bit. This is a wonderful condiment and will keep forever.

By the way, if you cannot get ‘nama’ noodles, dried will work too. A regular daikon radish could be substituted and the top, near the greens, is usually the most bitter part of the radish. A hot western radish would likely work too.

Cold Summer Noodles: Beni Shoga from the Umeboshi Barrel

Cold Summer Noodles: Umeboshi Vintage 2010 (in process)

I don’t make my own tsuyu. It usually includes dashi, shoyu and mirin. A lot of bottled tsuyu (and dashi) is full of chemicals like MSG. If you pay a little more you can get excellent tasting natural tsuyu, that is what I use. It usually is in concentrated form. I guess if I were a real foodie I would make my own. I will have to try that one day!

Nama (fresh, lit. raw) noodles take just 3 minutes or so to boil. Once I start the noodles I pour some tsuyu over ice in the serving bowl. If you are having guests, put the bowls in the freezer well before serving so that they are still frosty cold to the touch when they are served. That would be very ‘Kyoto’.

After the noodles have cook, rinse them with cold water several times until they are cold. The colder the better, use ice water to chill them if possible.

Cold Summer Noodles: Ice and Tsuyu

Grate the karami daikon and slice the beni shoga while the noodles are cooking and chilling. I grate about 2 to 3 tablespoons of daikon per serving. That is maybe a bit much as it is quite potent stuff. I can sometimes feel it burning in my tummy after the meal. The beni shoga is very salty so I use about a teaspoon or so. If it is too salty for you simply soak in water for 10 minutes or so and squeeze before dicing. You could also soak and squeeze after dicing but that will remove some flavor too. The smaller you can dice the ginger the more ‘Kyoto’ it will be.

Place the noodles over the ice and tsuyu and turn over a few times with your fingers or chopsticks. Then add the grated daikon and pickled ginger. An onsen tamago (hot spring egg) is also a nice addition. (No Recipes has a good recipe for onsen tamago here.)

Cold Summer Noodles with Tempura Served: Iced Soba with Karami Daikon, Beni Shoga and Onsen Tamago

I need some calories to keep me going in the hot summer so I like to have cold noodles with tempura. I usually buy tempura in the supermarket. I get kakiage ‘mixed’ tempura and often add it to my bowl of noodles after I have had a few bites. (Here are a few Kyoto kakiage links: Gion Tenshu, Yoshikawa Tempura and Marugame Udon)

Cold Summer Noodles with Tempura - All Mixed Up

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More on KyotoFoodie about Karami Daikon here.

Kitazawa Seed Company sells karami daikon seeds online, you could grow them yourself!

Cold Summer Noodles: Zaru Toro Udon at Tsunamichi - Served

Udon for Summer: Zaru Toro Udon at Tsunamichi (綱道のざるとろうどん)
This is a true gourmet masterpiece, country-style. It is just the right meal for Japanese summer!

Noodles: Dense, thick udon noodles, somehow both soft and firm, with lots of earthy, wheaty flavor served cold on a woven bamboo zaru (sieve) inset in a lacquered tray.
Dipping ‘Sauce’: The noodles are dipped into a mixture of grated yamaimo (Japanese mountain yam), raw egg, chopped scallions, fresh grated (real) wasabi and tsuyu. Tsuyu is a mixture of dashi, soy sauce and mirin.

Tsunamichi’s dipping sauce mixture is quite special, it is surely the richest I have had. The grated yamaimo is called tororo and unlike the very gooey (and cheaper) nagaimo usually used for tororo, it is extremely thick. The raw egg adds a luxurious creaminess, the fresh wasabi adds plenty of zing and the tsuyu is quite salty owing to plenty of soy sauce used.

The combination of this heavy, creamy dipping sauce and the heavy-duty country style noodles far surpasses any zaru udon or zaru soba dish I have encountered.

I am not a fan of Tsunamichi’s soba, it is very rough and thick and for me somehow lacks much taste. If you live in Kyoto and can visit Tsunamichi easily and like soba, by all means give it a try and tells us what you think in the comments section below. If you are just in town for a few days and want to try Tsunamichi, I highly recommend the udon over the soba.

Zaru toro udon costs 850 yen – and is quite filling.

Cold Summer Noodles: Zaru Toro Udon at Tsunamichi - Pouring on Tsuyu

Cold Summer Noodles: Zaru Toro Udon at Tsunamichi

Cold Summer Noodles: Zaru Toro Udon at Tsunamichi

Cold Summer Noodles: Zaru Toro Udon at Tsunamichi

All Gone!

More about Tsunamichi and Udon Country
It is mid-summer and hot, hot, hot in Kyoto now. The Gion Festival is over and that means the rainy season is over too. (The rainy season never fails to end the day or so before the Gion Festival Junko (procession) on the morning of July 17.) This is the season for cold and cooling meals.

Back in February of 2008 Miwa and I reviewed Tsunamichi’s very popular winter dish, piping hot miso simmered udon, (miso nikomi udon) and I eat it quite often in the cold months. As much as I like that one, I realized that I like this summer even more, much more.

Tsunamichi doesn’t make Kyoto-style noodles, no, there are thick, heavy and quite rough hewn, actually with more than a few noodles being too short or too thick. Never mind that, the taste is way over the top! Surely this is a dish for foodies not available abroad, not even available most anywhere in Japan!

Tsunamichi is a noodle shop run by a man from Kagawa prefecture in Shikoku. Sanuki is the classical name for this region and Sanuki is udon country! And the proprietor makes his udon, called undon in his dialect, by hand! (His soba too.)

Our previous ‘Udon for Winter‘ article about Tsunamichi has lots more information about udon culture in Shikoku so be sure to check it out!

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English:
English menu: none
English website: none
Service/Staff: Friendly
Price: 700 – 1,300 yen.
Location and Access: Bus, Subway. Tsunamichi is located about a 3 minute walk east from Kitaoji Bus Terminal, Kitaoji Subway Station and Kitaoji Vivre Shopping Center.
Address: Kyoto-shi Kita-ku Kitaoji-dori Karasuma Higashi-hitosuji Kita-iru Kitakamifusa-cho 39-2 (京都市北区北大路通烏丸東一筋北入ル北上総町39-2)
Telephone: 075-492-7860
Near Sightseeing Spot: Daitokuji Temple (10 min. bus)

Map:

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Japan’s Answer to ‘Cookies and Cream’ Ice Cream: Soba boro is a crunchy cookie made of soba flour, sugar and egg, a little bit like a Japanese version of biscotti. Chibeta makes a delicious ice cream flavored with soba boro.

In Japan, soba boro is something like a graham cracker or sugar cookie in Western culture, one of the slightly prosaic, common, cheap sweets that taste pretty good.

Soba boro is made with the same buckwheat flour used for soba noodles, you might not think of it as an ideal flavoring for ice cream, but the soba boro is a nice flavoring for ice cream. This flavoring is pretty clever (though not unheard of) and originally might have been a riff on cookies and cream, which is a very popular Häagen-Dazs flavor in Japan.

Soba Boro Ice Cream

Notice the bits of broken soba boro in the ice cream, those darker bits.

Trypical Soba Boro Package

Soba Boro ‘Cookies’

Soba Boro – detail

Chibeta Soba Boro Ice Cream Package

Soba Boro Ice Cream Served

Kyoto Handmade Ice Cream Shop Chibeta
Chibeta is located on in the Nishijin district of Kyoto on Senbon-dori, just south of Imadegawa-dori. From the intersection of Senbon and Imadegawa Streets, you just go three (short) blocks to the south and Chibeta is located on the east corner of Senbon and Sasayacho Streets intersection.

Chibeta Storefront

Chibeta Interior

Sobo Boro Ice Cream and ‘Cookies’

The presentation in the ice cream case at Chibeta is great, they have whole soba boro cookies on top of the ice cream.

Map

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Itadakimono: A few days ago I was given a large bunch of karami daikon by Iron Chef Defeater, Yoshimi Tanigawa, the owner and chef of Kichisen. Karami daikon is generally quite small and is grated and eaten with soba noodles. It is hot and bitter, a little goes a long way.

Karami literally means ‘hot taste’ in Japanese. Karami daikon is hot like wasabi or horse radish, not spicy hot like chili pepper.

Grated Karami Daikon on Soba

Karami daikon can usually be found in higher-end grocery stores but it is rather rare. I don’t think I have ever seen it in a reasonably priced soba restaurant. I have only had it at a monthly soba making gathering of fellow soba connoisseurs and at Kichisen.

Wasabi is commonly served with soba but I prefer karami daikon as daikon seems more suited to soba and dashi to me.

Karami daikon is simply grated and a small bit is placed on top of the soba, usually with chopped scallions. Grated daikon, very commonly served with grilled fish in Japan, has a good deal of water content, karami daikon has very little, after grating, no water gathers at the bottom of the plate or bowl, as happens with daikon.

If you cannot get karami daikon but want to try something similar, the very top of a regular daikon, the ‘neck’, especially if it is green can be quite hot and bitter. (Not always though.) Just grate that and squeeze out the water content.

Karami Daikon

Karami daikon comes in several sizes, all small, these were the smallest that I have seen, they were about the size of a ping pong ball.

Fresh and Peeled Karami Daikon

Peeled Karami Daikon Radishes – Detail

I peeled mine before grating, but some people simply wash it and grate. Unpeeled is said to be hotter. The hot ‘karami’ will lessen with time, so it should be grated right before eating. You can grate it while the soba boils.

Karami Daikon and Scallions

Peeled Karami Daikon

Grated Karami Daikon

Notice there is little water content in karami daikon.

Fresh ‘Nama’ Soba

‘Nama’ means fresh, or raw in Japanese. This type of high quality, undried soba can be found in most grocery stores and is worth paying an extra 100 yen or so for. This soba is quite thick, country-style rather than Kyoto-style.

Grated Karami Daikon and Chopped Scallions on Soba – Served

This amount is actually quite a bit. Don’t start out with too much, you can always add more. You want to be sure to stir it into the dashi well before eating, however, mixing too much is not cool in Japanese culinary culture.

Grated Karami Daikon and Chopped Scallions on Soba – Detail

Allyl isothiocyanate is the compound that makes karami daikon (raphanus sativum), hot, hot, hot!

Kitazawa Seed Company sells karami daikon seeds online, you could grow them yourself!

Dashi broth, udon noodles, chicken, egg, mushrooms and shrimp tempura are all placed in a covered earthenware nabe pot and boiled vigorously over high heat for several minutes. This dish is called nabeyaki udon, it is served piping hot in the nabe pot that it was cooked in. Kakutani’s nabeyaki udon cannot be topped!

Nabeyaki Udon
Nabeyaki is served literally boiling hot and the heavy earthenware nabe holds heat. So, you will want to be very careful not to burn your tongue. I sprinkle on shichimi (seven spice chili powder) and just let it sit for a bit. This allows it to cool and the shichimi flavor to be absorbed. Next use the small ‘torizara’ bowl to serve small portions that will cool down quicker.

Nabeyaki Udon: Served

Shichimi is in the bamboo container on the left. You just pull out the peg and sprinkle it on.

Nabeyaki Udon: Shichimi Added

Nabeyaki Udon: Shiitake, Egg and Udon

Nabeyaki Udon: Egg and Udon

Nabeyaki Udon: Shrimp Tempura and Udon

Kakutani Interior

Kakutani Restaurant
One of the first restaurants, maybe the very first, that I discovered after moving to Kyoto for graduate school some years ago was Kakutani. Kakutani is a shinise restaurant that has been in business since the late 18oo’s and is on the south side of what is now Kyoto University. Kakutani’s soba is excellent, their dashi broth is great, but in the winter, when it is cold, there is nothing that I like better for lunch than nabeyaki udon and Kakutani’s simply cannot be topped.

Kakutani is a very friendly, family run restaurant. In the winter I only order their nabeyaki udon. I walk in the door and they smile and say, ‘nabeyaki?’ I’m like, ah, yeah, how’d ya guess? This time, I hadn’t been there for like three years because I moved, and I didn’t think that they would remember me. But, without fail they did. They even remembered what I would be ordering! Now that’s service!

Kakutani Showcase

Shinise style plastic food.

Kakutani Exterior

Kakutani is located in the Shogoin neighborhood. This is where Kyoto’s most well known wagashi and omiyage, Yatsuhashi comes from. In the neighborhood you can visit a number of Yatsuhashi shinise stores and try the countless variations of this simple confection that are offered.

For sightseeing, nearby is Heian Shrine, and on Yoshida ‘Mountain’ there is Kurodani Temple, Shinnyodo Temple and Yoshida Shrine.

English and Access
Kakutani 京都 かく谷老舗
English service: No English menu but you can see most dishes in the show case, just point to order. The owner/staff are all very friendly.
Website: www.kakutani-rouho.com (Japanese language only)
Hours: – (only open for lunch)
Location and Access: Kakutani is located just northwest of the Higashi-oji and Marutamachi intersection.
Address
: Kyoto-shi, Sakyo-ku, Shogoin, Sanno-cho 39 (京都市左京区聖護院山王町39)
Telephone: 075-771-2934

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For lunch Miwa took me to Yorozuya, a tiny noodle shop in Gion that is known for it’s Kyoto scallion udon. If you come to Yorozuya for lunch, you might find yourself sitting next to a maiko also enjoying a bowl of udon heaped with scallions.

Hidden Lunch Spot in Gion and Kyoto Vegetables
Just a few minutes walk from Hanamikoji and Gion Corner, Yorozuya is one of those little Kyoto shops frequented by locals that is famous for a single dish. One of Kyoto’s famous vegetables, kujo scallion is combined with a generous helping of grated ginger in hot dashi with udon noodles (soba is also available).

Gion is the entertainment district of Kyoto and maiko (apprentice geisha) and Kabuki actors often visit the unpretentious Yorozuya for lunch.

Negi Udon Lunch

Kujo Negi and Heaps of Ginger

Kujo Scallion Udon
While enjoying lunch on a recent brisk autumn day, Miwa asked the owner about the dashi and kujo negi. The dashi is quite rich in flavor and is made with a lot of shaved fish. The scallions are first blanched and this removes the bitterness. They are then simmered with the dashi for several minutes, this makes them sweet and adds complexity to the dashi. The soup is heavy with the taste of fresh scallion but is not bitter or ‘oniony’. One bowl of kujo negi udon contains 7 to 8 scallions!

Miwa ordered ankake negi udon. Ankake is a kind of noodle broth that has katakuriko (starch) added to it which makes it very thick. Ankake is about the consistency of heavy cream. The starch adds no taste, but the dashi does retain heat much longer. If you burn your tongue easily you will probably want to avoid ankake! Ankake is wonderful in the cold seasons as it really does warm the body up. It is a great way to add richness to dashi without more calories.

For my taste, the udon noodles were too soft and not at all al dente. A lot of Kyoto people like noodles to be well cooked though, it is considered more sophisticated by them. Probably the majority of Japanese prefer noodles al dente.

If you want to order noodles in Japan al dente, the Japanese word is katame (固め).

Shichimi and Sansho Spice

Shichimi, or seven spice is a must for any Japanese noodle dish. Sansho is in the unopened container. There are several shops in the Gion neighborhood famous for shichimi and sansho. We have an article on the way for that, but for now you can check out this topic on spices at Kyoto Support forum.

Shichimi on Negi Udon – detail

Negi Udon

Ankake Negi Udon

Ankake broth is considerably thicker than regular dashi.

Kujo Negi

Award winning Kyoto scallions!

About Kujo Negi
Literally, ‘ninth street onion’, is a traditional Kyoto vegetable, or Kyo-yasai that came to Kyoto from current day Namba, Osaka about 1,300 years ago. Today, Kujo (ninth street) is just south of Kyoto Station. Over the centuries kujo negi developed their own ‘Kyoto’ flavor and since the Edo era this area produced most of the scallions for Kyoto and thus they became known as kujo negi. Kujo negi is available all year now but traditionally they were in season in November.

There are now two types of kujo negi, thick and thin. Yorozuya uses the thin variety.

Yorozuya Storefront

Neighborhood

The neighborhood is typical of Gion; a jumbled mix of exclusive, traditional and seedy. You can peek into a moss covered temple garden or buy some booze from a vending machine and take it with you to the Hotel King (a love hotel).

Neighborhood Temple

The area infront of the gate to this little temple is quite dumpy, but take a look inside.

Neighborhood Temple Garden

The carefully scuplted pines, the moss and stones are so Japanese. I love the diagonal, half useless stone path.

Neighborhood Love Hotel

If scallions in hot dashi put you and your mate in the mood, you are in luck! You can stop in at Hotel King just down the way for a ‘rest’.

Neighborhood Guard Dog

This sleepy and uninterested dog was sitting on top of a barrel at the entrance to the storeroom of a liquor store. In the background is a vending machine (brown), the white character on it means sake.

English and Access

English menu: none
English website: none (Japanese language website)
Service/Staff: very friendly and helpful
Hours: 12noon-10pm, open everyday (except around Golden Week, Obon, New Year’s, Obon, )
Location and Access: Five minutes on foot from Gion Shijo Station (Keihan Railway). From Shijo Street walk south on Hanamikoji to the second street and turn right (west) and walk about 1 minute. Yorozuya is on the left (south) side of the street, opposite the small temple gate shown above.
Address
: Kyoto-shi, Higashiyama-ku, Shijo Hanamikoji-sagaru, Futasujime Nishi-iru, Komatsu-cho 555-1 (京都市東山区四条花見小路下る二筋目西入る小松町555-1)
Telephone: 075-551-3409

Near sightseeing Spot: Yorozuya is located near the first Zen temple in Japan, Kenninji. It has some very old and architecturally significant buildings and the gardens are well worth your time. If you are in Kyoto and don’t have time to get out of the center of the city but still want to see some Zen gardens, try Kennin Temple.

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Paku and I were invited to Uichiro, an elegant handmade soba and udon restaurant yesterday by one of Paku’s foodie friends. Uichiro is in a beautiful old machiya (traditional Kyoto house), has excellent food, great atmosphere and very friendly service.

I had kamo nanban (鴨南蛮そば), which is a popular Kyoto dish combining thick sliced roast duck breast, roast scallions and soba. The roast duck lends a distinct, pungent barbecued taste to the dashi soup.

Dessert was a true novelty; soba kanten jelly! Unheard of!

Article Update: Unfortunately, this commendable restaurant has closed. (20.10.2009)

Duck (kamo) is very popular in Kyoto, and is a ‘winter food’ as it is rich and nutritious. Kamo is enjoyed in soup, ham-like thick sliced roast and the luxurious kamo-nabe.

Uichiro’s rendition of kamo nanban is exquisite because the kamo and scallions have been well grilled before added to the dashi soup. Dashi is already rich and pungent thanks to the katsuobushi (shaved skipjack tuna) that is the base of the soup stock, but this combination takes it over the top. The three of us has never had a Japanese soup that tasted anything like this, it was sublime! And perfect for a snowy, winter day.

Steaming Kamo Nanban Soba

note: The dipping sauce on the left is not for kamo nanban soba, but for the croquettes (see below).

Kisetsu-no-gozen (Seasonal Dish Set) – first course

note: The bowl on the left is delightfully and playfully in the form of a radish! Nuta (left) and mushi-zushi (right).

Kisetsu-no-gozen (Seasonal Dish Set) – main course, tempura soba

Kisetsu-no-gozen (Seasonal Dish Set) – final course, soba kanten jelly

Kisetsu-no-gozen
Gozen is the polite was to say ‘meal’ in Japanese. Traditionally it was reserved in use for members of the nobility. Now, ‘nice’ lunch sets are often called Gozen… and usually incorporate a rice dish.

Kisetsu in Japanese means, ‘season’.

This one consisted of four dishes in three courses.

Nuta: a fish salad dressed with a miso-vinegar based dressing.
Mushi-zushi: This is a steamed (mushi) variation of the ever popular chirashi-zushi. None of us had ever had this dish before as sushi is not a warm or hot dish. Again, seasonal — it’s winter. The sushi rice seemed to have dashi in it, making it more hearty. The yellow topping is slivered egg. The green leaf garnish is sansho.
Tempura Soba: Shrimp and Sato-imo tempura served on soba.
Soba Kanten Jelly: Simple yet astounding! Again, none of us had ever heard of this dessert. Kanten is a naturally derived jelly that is made from sea vegetables used for many popular desserts in Japanese cuisine. Traditionally it was produced in cold mountainous regions in the winter as freeze drying was essential to creating kanten.

This dessert is unique because the kanten is heavily flavored with soba, probably soba-cha (soba ‘tea’). The reddish-brown garnish sprinkled on top of the jelly is cracked, roasted soba kernels.

The black beans are the well-loved sweetened kuro-mame, literally ‘black bean’, from the Tamba region of Kyoto.

This is one heck of a dessert!

Sato-imo (Japanese taro) Croquettes

Yummy!

Japanese Lacquerware – Urushi

Everything in this photo is lacquered, even the tray. Japanese lacquerware, or urushi, often incorporates fabric. Notice the square at the bottom of the bowl, that is fabric that has been lacquered over. The lip of the bowl is also covered with fabric, as is the grip of the spoon. Urushi is another subject that an entire blog could easily be devoted to. Be sure to stock-up on urushi when you visit Kyoto!

Uichiro Exterior

The Genkan, or Entry Vestibule
A fountain, a cast iron lantern and the ubiquitous ikebana flower arrangement greet the guest upon sliding open the door.

The Front Dining Room

Several obi (帯), or kimono sash decorate the dining room. Perhaps this machiya was once an obi store.

The Front Dining Room

The Front Dining Room – Mochi-bana

This is a winter decoration called mochi-bana, literally ‘mochi flower’. Pieces of red and white mochi (rice cake) are put on willow branches to simulate blossoms. This decoration is a part of the New Year’s (shogatsu) celebration.

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English:
English menu: none
English website: none
Service/Staff: Very friendly
Price: 700 – 1,800 yen.
Location and Access: Uichiro is located a few blocks to the west of Teramachi and Kawaramachi Steets, about 15-20 minutes north of the Shijo/Sanjo Kawaramachi and Shijo/Sanjo Karasuma areas. Probably best accessed on foot.
Address: 604-0944 Kyoto-shi Nakagyo-ku Oshikoji Fuyacho-higashi-iru Tachibana-cho 616
(京都市中京区押小路通麩屋町東入ル橘町616番地)
Telephone: 075-211-8138
Near Sightseeing Spot: The Imperial Palace (10 min. walk to the north), Teramachi Street, Kamo River, Kyoto International Manga Museum.

Map:

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The island of Shikoku is Udon country. And 27 years ago, a man from Shikoku quit his job as a salary man and started Tsunamichi with the intent of making the best damn handmade noodles in Kyoto.

Now a lot of noodle shops have a sign out front reading, ‘teuchi soba‘ (handmade soba), ‘teuchi udon‘ (handmade udon), but actually, very few are really handmade. Tsunamichi is the real deal!

When the master is not cooking noodles in front of customers, he is upstairs making noodles! Making real handmade noodles is hard labor, and Tsunamichi is very popular. What’s more, Tsunamichi is open not just for lunch, but also dinner. Most Mom and Pop type noodle shops are only open for lunch, as it is just such hard work.

While waiting for my noodles, watching the master cook, the steady stream of customers… and then I noticed the sign with the business hours (open for lunch AND dinner), I was like, wow, this guy is superman!

Discovering Tsunamichi:
Paku and I were out looking for some lunch the other day, while I was taking her to a surprise destination; the grave of Lady Murasaki Shikibu, considered to have written the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji.

It was lunchtime and we were starving and cold and I saw a sign for a noodle shop pointing down a little street and decided to investigate. Once inside, we soon realized that we had happened upon a mecca for Kyoto noodle lovers.

Later Paku searched on the internet and I talked to some friends, it seemed that somehow we were the only people around that had never heard of Tsunamichi!

Tsunamichi’s Miso Nikomi Udon

A Little About Udon:
Tsunamichi is not ‘Kyoto’, it is ‘country-style’ noodles, in Kyoto.

As stated above, Shikoku is udon country, or undon, as it is apparently called in the local dialect. And Sanuki Udon is the udon. When Japanese think of udon, they invariably think ‘Sanuki’. Sanuki is the ancient name of the country that is modern-day Kagawa Prefecture.

Knowledge of udon was conveyed to Japan more than 1000 years ago by the monk Kukai (Kobo Daishi). Kukai was from Sanuki and when he returned to Japan, in addition to Buddhism he taught what he had learned about noodles in China. And there, the seed of Japanese udon culture was planted. More than 1000 years later, this love of udon flourishes, the people of Sanuki are very, very particular about their udon.

In fact there is a strict and legal definition of what qualifies as Sanuki Udon.

• Must be made in Kagawa Prefecture
• Must be handmade
• By weight, water must be more than 40% as compared to wheat flour
• By weight, salt must be more than 3% as compared to wheat flour
• Must be ‘ripened’ (jukusei, 熟成) at least 2 hours before cutting

If you want to try a taste of Sanuki on Kyoto, Tsunamichi is the place.

Udon for Winter: Miso Nikomi Udon
I visited Tsunamichi twice in the last month and both times ordered the same dish, Miso Nikomi Udon (みそ煮込みうどん).

Nikomi, means to be simmered in. Miso is the same miso as miso soup. So, this dish is udon noodles that have been simmered in a thick miso based soup. The soup and udon noodles are placed in a small metal or ceramic ‘nabe‘, vegetables such as leeks added, plus sliced atsuage tofu, fish cake and a raw egg. This is cooked over high heat for five minutes or so. Until the veggies and egg are lightly cooked and is then served.

This is wonderful dish for winter. A rich and nutritious soup with thick, chewy udon. It is usually still boiling vigorously when served. After a few minutes, it starts to approach an edible temperature and about this time the egg is cooked. (If aren’t up for raw egg, this dish is safe.)

To further cool the soup and noodle mixture, it is spooned into a smaller bowl.

Shichimi (seven flavored chili pepper) can be sprinkled on either when it is transfered to this smaller bowl, or when it arrives, boiling vigorously in the nabe pot.

Tsunamichi serves both handmade soba and udon. Also, rice dishes like donburi. There are all the numerous noodle dishes, Tsunamichi doesn’t seem to offer any originals, just the classic Japanese lunch fare with noodles made with love and the taste and spirit of Sanuki.

Miso Nikomi Udon with Shichimi in a Small Bowl

notice the egg is now cooked

The Menu

Many traditional restaurants in Japan have their dishes written with brush and ink on these boards.

The Menu – Detail

Tsunamichi Store Front

Tsunamichi Store Front – Detail

Plastic food, even the plastic looks tasty!

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English:
English menu: none
English website: none
Service/Staff: Friendly
Price: 700 – 1,300 yen.
Location and Access: Bus, Subway. Tsunamichi is located about a 3 minute walk east from Kitaoji Bus Terminal, Kitaoji Subway Station and Kitaoji Vivre Shopping Center.
Address: Kyoto-shi Kita-ku Kitaoji-dori Karasuma Higashi-hitosuji Kita-iru Kitakamifusa-cho 39-2 (京都市北区北大路通烏丸東一筋北入ル北上総町39-2)
Telephone: 075-492-7860
Near Sightseeing Spot: Daitokuji Temple (10 min. bus)
Map:

View OpenKyoto/KyotoFoodie Map in a larger map

Owariya, a purveyor to the Imperial Household, has a history that goes back over five hundred and forty years. It is the oldest noodle shop in Kyoto.

Over the centuries, Owariya has served emperors and shoguns as well as the monks of many of the temples of Kyoto.

Owariya is very popular with both locals and visitors for it’s soba noodles as well as soba confectioneries.

Owariya, properly called Honke Owariya (the ‘Original’ Owariya) is very popular for it’s noodles as well as confectioneries. The main restaurant is located on a quiet street just south of the Imperial Palace. The concetionery shop is located in the same neighborhood, one street to the west on Karasuma Street.

Owariya is a very ‘Kyoto’ establishment, centuries old, excellent food and atmosphere, yet very approachable. If you want to experience ‘Kyoto’ and ‘soba’, you cannot go wrong with Owariya.

Owariya Main Restaurant Entrance

Inside the gate, on the right side is a delightful little garden.

Zashiki and Tokonoma

Zashiki (sit on the floor on tatami mats). Tokonoma (alcove with hanging scroll and flowers). There is a delightful little dining alcove to the right of the door as you enter Owariya. There are just two tables, if you can get seated here and you don’t mind sitting on the floor, this is a cozy little place to enjoy lunch or dinner. (By the way, sitting on the floor Japanese style can be uncomfortable for folks not accustomed to it. If you are not quite as limber as in your younger days, go for the chairs and tables.)

A sampling of Owariya’s soba confectionaries
Owariya actually started out as a confectionery shop. If you visit the restaurant between 3 and 5:30 guests are given these complementary wagashi. Take them home with you if you like. They are of course, soba (buckwheat) confectionery.

Rikyu Soba (利休そば)

This is one of Owariya’s most famous dishes. It contains fu 麩 (wheat gluten) that has been deep fried, simmered in sweetened shoyu. The geens are mitsuba, there is a sheet of dried and reconstituted yuba, the ‘maple leaves’ are also fu, but nama (fresh), not fried. The dashi (soup stock) always amazes me, it is a very delicate and understated broth but not at all wimpy.

Soba Tempura! — A side dish of assorted tempura, tenpura chirashi (天婦羅ちらし)

Tempura Chirashi (literally, a scattering of tempura) is on the ‘hors d’œuvres’ section of the menu. (The really call it hors d’œuvres!) Tempura soba is common on menus, that is a piece or two of tempura served on top of a bowl of soba noodles. This is not that dish, it is soba noodles that have been deepfried along with the shrimp and baby eggplant! (Paku hadn’t even heard of this one! It is quite rare, and a treat.)
note: grated daikon upper right

Rikyu Soba and Tempura Chirashi

The grated daikon radish is placed in the dipping sauce, this is of course for the tempura.

Soba Tempura – detail

Left to right; nori,soba (tied in a delightful knot), shrimp tail

Nature is just a sheet of paper away!
I pulled back the shoji latticed slidding screen/door and got a delightful peek at the garden. Though flowers are blooming it is near freezing, so the shoji did not stay open for long!

The Entry Vestibule and Noren

The noren, or shop curtain reads, “御用蕎麦司” (goyou soba tsukasa), “purveyor of soba to the Imperial Household.”

Plastic food, shinise style!

Ah, Japan’s ubiquitous plastic food! At Owariya, it looks completely real! The dish on the right is some delicacies that can be enjoy with sake before dinner. There is soba-miso, fish cakes and herring simmered in sweet shoyu sauce.

Owariya Soba Confectionery Shop

The confectionery shop is located on the next street over from the noodle shop, on Karasuma Street and it would seem that the restaurant and the confectionery shop are connected at the back.
The Owariya confectionery shop has confections made with soba!

Soba Warabi Mochi (蕎麦わらび)

This is a variation of warabi mochi, but this is sprinkled with Owariya’s soba powder.

Soba Bouro 蕎麦ぼうろ

A kind of biscuit, or cookie made with soba flour. Soba bouro is common and popular all over Japan. It is often somewhat sweet.

English:
English menu: yes
English website: www.honke-owariya.co.jp
Service/Staff: Staff is ok, not especially friendly.
Price: 1,000 – 3,000 yen. (A nice lunch can be had for about 1,000 yen and for dinner or a house specialty, 2,000 to 3,000 yen)
Location and Access: The noodle shop is just a five minute walk south of The Imperial Palace on Kurumaya-cho Street, and one block east of Karasuma Street.
Near Sightseeing Spot: Imperial Palace
Map:

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summary: Ukiya is second to none for soba. Soba is the famed buckwheat noodle of Japan. Ukiya’s soba is handmade (手打ち, teuchi) every morning. Ukiya’s famous dish is the very unique Ukiten Soba.

Ukiya has 9 restaurants, 7 of which are in Kyoto. I visited the Ukiya in Ponto-cho, near Sanjo Bridge, next to the Kaburenjo Theater. Takaraya Ramen (reviewed on kyotofoodie recently) is directly across the narrow Ponto-cho street from Ukiya. Here we review a dish that also includes raw egg (we reviewed Tamago kake gohan at Takaraya).

Ukiya has a famed dish that is completely unique in Kyoto, and all of Japan for that matter. That is the Ukiten Soba. The ‘ten’ in Ukiten is tempura. It is common for noodle and rice dishes to be served with tempura on top. Tempura soba, udon, donburi, can be found on most any lunch menu in Japan.

Ukiya’s rendition is completely unique because it features whipped raw egg (生卵, namatamago) and natto (納豆)! Natto, again is fermented soybeans, not well liked by all Japanese. Natto is commonly eaten at home, often with breakfast. Natto is more well liked in the Kanto region (Tokyo) than here in the Kansai region.

Ukiten Soba is offered either hot of cold. Cold goes great with summer and hot with winter.

The tempura is a shrimp, a piece of nori (dipped in tempura batter and deep-fried) and a sprinkling of tenkasu (天かす), tenkasu is droplets of tempura batter that has been deep-fried, tenkasu is often added to soba and udon dishes. This is garnished with strips of nori and a lightly grilled shishito (sweet green pepper) and chopped scallions.

This is all atop a layer of rich, creamy whipped raw egg. This is what you can see, under this is Ukiya’s famous handmade soba and natto. And of couse, tsuyu (つゆ), the ‘soup’.

These two ingredients, whipped egg or natto are by no means common with soba dishes. I have taken many Japanese friends and visitors to Ukiya, people from various regions of Japan. Everyone was amazed with the concoction, and even people that don’t normally eat natto all loved it.

Ukiya offered both shichimi and sansho to sprinkle on. The staff recommends shichimi, but I prefer sansho.

Again, about namatamago, I have eaten raw or undercooked egg in Japan for years, I have eaten Ukiten Soba countless times and I haven’t had any trouble. I think you have to take your own physical constitution into consideration, especially if you are traveling, but do consider this dish. Also, you may have tried natto and been turned off by its smell or texture, neither of which are pronounced in Ukiten Soba.

Ukiya has numerous other dishes, some of them quite extravagant for a soba shop, but I have never tried any other these! To me, Ukiten Soba is THAT good! For years I have only ordered this dish.

Ukiya is one of my all time favorite restaurants in Kyoto. I highly, highly recommend it!

By the way, Kyoto is not really a ‘noodle town’, Shikoku is famous for udon and the mountainous and northern regions of Japan are famous for soba. However, Kyoto is the king, or shall we say, the emperor of dashi (soup stock) and tsuyu (soup) and various kinds of sauces and dippings in Japan. The reasons being that the water itself is exceptional, exceptionally soft, which lends itself to soups and Japanese tea. And most importantly, Kyoto was ‘his highness the emperor’s kitchen’ (天皇陛下の台所) for more than a thousand years and he liked his cuisine refined!

Ukiten Soba (有喜天そば)

notice the light sprinkling of shichimi (seven spice chili powder)

soba and natto

just natto beans left

You can drink the tsuyu, but it is currently not recommended for health reasons as it has a lot of salt.

Yukiya in Ponto-cho, the building on the right is the Kaburenjo Theater (traditional dance).
Above the noren, the shop curtain, there are two talisman-type objects, these are to ward off misfortune. Such items are purchased at shrines all over Japan. These are probably from the Gion Festival (祇園祭り, Gion Matsuri), each float (鉾, hoko) offers their own talisman. The large window on the right is where the head chef makes soba every morning.

Making Teuchi Soba

Here the chef is cutting the soba from a single sheet of folded dough.
The large red and black lacquer bowl is used for mixing and kneading the dough. On the wall, behind the chef are wooden pins used for rolling out the dough to about a thickness of 2 millimeters.
The photograph on the upper left shows Ukiya’s soba fields in Hanase, a small and very picturesque village in the mountains to the north of Kyoto.

critique: For me Ukiya doesn’t have much to improve. The soba is truly second to none. The Ponto-cho location only seats a few people on the ground floor. The basement, though recently renovated is a bit dungeon-like, I try to avoid it. You can ask to be seated on the second floor if the ground floor is full. Several of the other locations are quite nice. The Ukiya inside The Museum of Kyoto (at Takakura Sanjo) offers a better interior and atmosphere.

English: English menu, no English website, the staff is not bad.
Ukiya website (The website is all in Japanese, but there are lots of photos, so you still can get the idea.)

有喜屋そば、京都、先斗町