In Kyoto summer is here! It’s time for cold noodles and vegetables.

Natto: Have you heard about natto? Natto is fermented soybeans which due its pungent smell has many detractors. Many people dislike, some even hate natto. But here at KyotoFoodie, we think that good natto is a wonderful thing! In addition to its ‘challenging’ smell, natto is very ‘nebaneba‘, meaning ‘sticky’ and ‘stringy’. Like, sticky in a way that you have probably never experienced! And, in Japanese cuisine there are a number of ingredients that are sticky and gooey, we combine several here for a yummy, healthy and cooling summer noodle meal.

Nebaneba Hiyashi Udon with Natto, Nagaimo and Okra is one of Paku’s original creations that Peko absolutely LOVES! There are many ‘hiyashi‘, chilled noodle dishes in Japan, but this is a masterpiece! Sawara with Minty Miso Glaze Peko made with some inspiration from Marc. Paku was dubious about mint and cilantro flavored miso but loved it! Mizunasu is a kind of early summer tsukemono in which fresh, young eggplant are lightly picked in saltwater and served chilled. This all goes really well with beer!

Natto and Nagaimo
Natto and nagaimo (Japanese mountain yam) are generally available in Western countries now, so we hope that you will give this one a try. Some natto, especially the ‘cheap’ stuff we don’t like. You probably cannot get kuromame (black bean) natto abroad but in our experience, the bigger the beans in the natto, the better it tastes. Also, don’t make too much of the reputed smell of natto, natto, especially modern natto is not that smelly. Western cheeses are far more pungent than natto.

Preparation
Here are the ingredients and basic preparation methods. As with all our homecooking articles here on KyotoFoodie, we just give you the basic idea and as you are all foodies, you can adapt and refine for your tastes. If you haven’t used tsuyu before check if you need to dilute it with water and of course, follow the instructions or your noodles could be far too salty. The photos below illustrate the process and steps.

Nebaneba Hiyashi Udon with Natto, Nagaimo and Okra

• nagaimo (or yamaimo) about 10-15cm, wash or peel and grate
• okra 10-12, blanch in salt water, rinse to cool and slice
• natto 2-3 packages
• scallion 5 chopped
• udon boil and chill (‘fresh’ udon is preferred but high-quality dried udon will work fine too)
• tsuyu 1/2 cup per serving (dashi broth with soy sauce)
• egg yolk 1 per serving (optional)
• shiso leaf (optional)
• jyako (optional)

Boil the udon, rinse well with cold water. Prepare the other indgredients.

Serving: In a large bowl, place several ice cubes. Place the udon noodles over the ice cubes and add the other ingredients in layers. Grated nagaimo goes down first, then well stirred natto. The veggies go on next, if you like raw egg add a single yolk. Finally pour on tsuyu and serve. The noodles should be well chilled when they go into the bowl and by the time it is eaten, the ice cubes should be almost completely melted.

Sawara with Minty Miso Glaze

• sawara (Spanish mackerel)
• fresh mint
• fresh cilantro
• miso paste (white, light, sweet recommended) 3-4 tablespoons
• sake or cooking sake (ryori shu) 2 tablespoons
• mirin 2 tablespoons

Finely chop the mint and cilantro and combine with miso, sake and mirin into a creamy consistency. Save some chopped mint and cilantro for garnish. Marinade the sawara or similar fish for 12-24 hours. Before grilling, wipe off excess miso marinade. When cooking, excessive heat will cause the miso glaze to burn.

Mizunasu Tsukemono
Although we bought our mizunasu it is not difficult to make. We can find a recipe if anyone is interested. It ought to be quite simple; it is eggplant, salt and water.

The ‘Nebaneba’ Ingredients

Natto, nagaimo and okra are stringy, sticky, gooey – not to mention very healthy and delicious! In the liquid-filled plastic bag in the center is mizunasu tsukemono, literally ‘water eggplant’.

Ingredients for Sawara with Minty Miso Glaze

This was inspired by Marc’s Salmon with a minty miso glaze and uses sawara (Spanish mackerel) which is in season now.

Peeling Nagaimo

I (Peko) sometimes don’t peel it, I just scrub it vigorously and that removes all the yucky stuff. I think that Japanese always peel it though.

Grating Nagaimo

Grating nagaimo is kind of enjoyable. It’s like the proverbrial hot knife though butter.

Natto Packaging

Two small packets of mustard and soy sauce are included.

Kuromame ‘Black Bean’ Natto

Stirring Natto

Ice Cold Udon Noodles

Cold udon in often served with a few chunks of ice in the summer.

Pouring on the Grated Nagaimo

A Final Stir of the Natto

Adding the Natto

The Masterpeice! All the Toppings and Tsuyu

On the left, okra, on the top and bottom is kuromame natto, on the right scallions and in the middle an egg yolk. Around the egg yolk Paku sprinkled jyako (tiny dried, seasoned fish fry) and finally a few tablespoons of tsuyu (cold noodle dipping sauce) is poured on. Tsuyu is just dashi with a fair amount of shoyu (soy sauce).

Dinner is Served

Nebaneba cold udon, minty miso glaze grilled sawara, mizunasu tsukemono and of course Japan’s best beer; Yebisu. This makes for a mighty fine summer dinner!

Eating Nebaneba Cold Udon – Stir Well and Gobble

Eating Nebaneba Cold Udon

Eating Nebaneba Cold Udon

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