The Japanese are very proud of their long-standing cultural traditions as well as the most “fastidious” tastes in the world. Japanese dishes are famous for their variety and richness, both delicious and elaborately decorated. It can be said that Japanese cuisine contains in it the whole soul of the land of the rising sun. Besides the indispensable dish on the daily menu is rice, Japanese people also love to eat noodles. Types of Japanese noodles have an extremely diverse processing and unique flavor of each type. So let’s explore Japanese noodles in the article below to learn more about Japanese cuisine!
4 types of Japanese noodles represent traditional cuisine
1. Udon Noodles:
Udon noodles are made from flour, salt, and water. The noodles are milky white, thick, round, or square in shape. This is the most popular and most popular type of noodle. As for how thick or thin the noodles are, it’s also a problem. Depending on the locality, noodle shop, and individual preferences, some places make them thicker or thinner than the usual size. In addition, depending on the weather in the hot or cold season adjust the thickness of the noodles. Like other noodles, Udon noodles will “bloom” when cooked, so the noodles will be bigger, heavier, and thicker. We can easily feel the delicious and chewy taste of flour when enjoying it. The broth has a strange and characteristic taste – mildly salty and sweet but equally rich.
Eaten traditionally, Udon noodles are used with meat broth, served with fried eggs, vegetables, fish, dumplings, salt pork, and fried shrimp. Each dish of Udon noodles has a unique name to distinguish it, for example, Kake Udon, made from a simple meat broth, served with a sauce along with mirin and dashi – two common Japanese condiments; kitsune udon – made with fried tofu, or yaki udon – udon noodles mixed with black sauce.
2. Ramen Noodles:
Ramen noodles are bright yellow, tiny fibers completely different from Udon noodles. This ramen is popular all over Japan and each locality has its ramen flavor. Ramen has a “noodle park” (Odaiba ramen park) dedicated to it. Coming to Odaiba Noodle Park, Tokyo, you will enjoy the different ramen dishes of each region in Japan.
Noodle soup is made from salt, clear water (shio ramen), pork bone stew – cloudy water (tonkatsu ramen), Japanese soy sauce – dark brown water (shouyu ramen), and miso – cloudy water (miso ramen). Miso is a kind of bean paste that is used to make soups with rice and many other dishes. In addition, there are noodle soups cooked with shrimp in seafood noodles, Japanese curry, or noodles with eggs…
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3. Soba Noodles:
Soba noodles are considered a symbol of good luck, Japanese people eat this noodle at the end of the year to see off the old year, and welcome a new year full of luck and health. The soba noodles are long and tough, dark brown. Soba noodles are processed meticulously through many steps and the way of eating is also very special. Soba noodles are made by mixing buckwheat flour and flour, adding water to make a paste, then kneading and rolling it out, and cutting it into small pieces.
Two types of noodles to choose from are mori-soba (noodles washed in cold water after boiling, then placed on a bamboo tray), and kake-soba (noodles placed in a large bowl with hot broth poured on top). A recent innovation is tane-mono (noodles with a piece of tempura, fried thin golden tofu, wild vegetables, duck meat, etc.)
4. Somen Noodles:
Among Japanese noodles, Somen is a very famous cold noodle dish. Summer here is not very hot. However, in the summer they still love to eat cold noodles. Somen cold noodles are a very popular summer dish in Japan and it is also a traditional dish, the pride of Japanese people whenever they have the opportunity to talk about their homeland.
Somen noodles are elaborately presented noodles with many different flavors depending on the taste of the eater when processing. Somen noodles are thin, long noodles presented in glass bowls, when eaten, they are served with ice water and little green vegetables, vegetables, or different types of meat. Noodles are eaten with freshly polished green bamboo chopsticks. Bringing the noodle chopsticks to our mouths feels like we are enjoying the whole summer.
Above are the types of Japanese noodles. Japanese cuisine is very rich and attractive, isn’t it? You can learn about this country by yourself and you will find that Japan, despite being a leading technology country in the world, still retains in itself the proud traditional cultural features of a nation.
