The General Rule:Japanese restaurants are all about specialization. In noodle restaurants there will be noodles, tempura places serve tempura, sushi restaurants offer sushi, yakitori bars serve yakitori. Mr. Rabbit had a business dinner at a miso restaurant where every course involved miso, and the same came be said of tofu. Exceptions to the Rule:Notable exceptions to the Rule of Specialization are izakaya (sometimes described as Japanese pub fare), kaiseki and Kyo-ryori (Kyoto cuisine).Noodle shops are ubiquitous in Japan, easily found in every neighbourhood and especially around train stations. However, even among noodlehouse, the Japanese Rule of Specialization applies. There are three main types of noodles, and any noodlehouse that offers more than one variety should immediately be suspected in terms of authenticity. The noodles were studied were: soba, ramen and udon. Soba are perhaps the most typically Japanese. The most noteworthy place we sampled soba was Yabu Soba near Ueno Park. This resto is traditional style, located in a charming old house. And it’s very popular, so we did have to queue — something one quickly gets used to in Japan. We were seated upstairs at a long table that we shared with a couple of young women. This space was tatami, and we were asked to take off our shoes, in traditional style. While in Japan, I became quite enchanted with tatami. Even in more quick and casual restos there are often sections were one can sit tatmi and I found it very cozy and relaxing, even seeking out this kind of seating much like I’d angle for a booth in North America (note that Mr. Rab found tatami hard on his back - geriatric complaint!).Also seated near us at Yabu was a very round and curious baby who kept toddling over to visit and helped me learn the words for eye (meh) and nose (hana). Mr. Rabbit was poked in the meh during said exercise, but he quickly recovered.Back to the food… soba are long brownish coloured noodles made from buckwheat. Soba are often eaten cold, in which case the noodles are dipped in a sauce of soy and wasabi. You mix this yourself in a small dish or cup so that you can adjust the flavours to your liking. Mr. Rabbit and his cousin ate cold noodles, but I wanted something hot, so I had soba with tempura and shrimp. This dish came in a flavourful dark broth. The tempura was floating in the bowl rather like a lot of loose soda crackers in soup, and the shrimp were unbreaded since the tempura was served up in this crushed cracker style, and also floating in the broth. This presentation is really great, and the food knocked out the soba we sometimes have at home. We also sampled some cured duck breast (lovely, but surprisingly like the stuff we had at the Black Trumpet in Portsmouth, NH last month), and “slimy potato soup.” This was a cream soup with a visually slimy texture from the potatoes, which have a slightly water chestnut-y texture. The soup was served cold, and I liked its flavour, but was ambivalent about the texture.www.yabu-soba.com We had soba quite often in Tokyo, but the other most notable soba-eating experience was nishin soba in Kyoto, a regional specialty. In this presentation, the soba is served hot with nishin, a cured fish (herring). The Kyoto-style soba broth is a little lighter than Tokyo broth (and such regional variations are quite noteworthy and entrenched), and this works well with the strong flavour of the fish. I was fished out that day, so I opted out of the nishi-soba, but Mr. Rab liked.Somen – Somen are very thin white noodles, glass like, which we were served cold at the end of our meal in Kyoto. Ice cold, to be exact, since the stunning presentation of this dish saw our noodles served in large rectangular “bowls” literally carved from ice. Again, the noodles were dipped in a soy/wasabi dressing. The taste was light and delicate, and they were a nice close to our dinner (a zag from the traditional rice served at the end of the meal). Ramen are Chinese noodles, long and thin, and when done right definitely a very distant cousin to the packaged variety that are a North American student staple. In Tokyo, ramen shops are probably the most popular noodlehouses, and we sampled various ramen during our stay. At the shop nearest our apa-to (apartment!) you order and pre-pay for your noodles through a vending machine which then gives you a ticket that you then hand over to the noodle chef. This practice is quite common, and if there are pictures on the vending machine this process becomes quite easy for travelers. Ramen tend to come with pork meat and they often have egg in the mix (either hard boiled or in a kinda yoke-y poached form). We evaluated ramen according to three criteria: the quality of the noodles (some places make their own, some use pre-made), the quality of the meat (varies hugely), and the broth (again, varies hugely, but you can rev or dress up the broth with various condiments). The top noodle shop we tried was a tiny spot in Kuto city where we suspect the “master” (and yes, this is what a Japanese chef is called) made his own noodles. I was very proud to have sussed out this spot myself on the first day of our trip! Udon are a traditional Japanese wheat noodle, long and thick. Udon often come with bento lunches in Japan. The broth tends to be fish or seafood based and I often found it thin and lacking in spice. There may be meat or veg in your udon, but often the noodles are just served in a broth along with some sashimi or other lunch accompaniments. I didn’t have any standout udon in Tokyo, but the best of the batch was at a spot in Kikukawa very near our apparto. Here, the udon was served with a poached egg floating in the broth along with some tempura shrimp and some fishcake. This was a pretty good combo, a satisfying lunch, but not a standout. In this presentation, the soup was served in a large and very large hot pot/dish, and a smaller bowl was provided on the side for decanting and eat the stuff from the big bowl.Note: It really is true that in Japan, noodles are slurped. Aficionados claim that slurping permits one to get in some air to circulate the flavours of the noodles and broth, and that the dish is best appreciated only with proper slurp. Mr. Rabbit is a good slurper, but I am hobbled by my North American propriety. Slurping is messy (there are often Kleenexes on the table for mopping up). The JC laughed at me for being a silent noodle-eater. I’m working on it.

Posted on December 16th, 2007 by rabbit
Filed under: Japan, Restaurant Reviews