udon (うどん)

Hello. How are you doing? Today, I would like to talk about udon (うどん) , one of popular Japanese noodles.

Do you know “udon”? Udon is mainly made from wheat flour. It looks white. Japanese people often eat udon in a mildly flavored broth or dipping soy-flavored sauce. And udon is usually topped with chopped green onions, tempura, seaweed and so on. They eat this food not only as daily meal but also as meal for special day such as New Year’s Day. Japanese people has two types of udon, cold version and hot version, so they can enjoy udon all year around.

It is said that Japanese people ate udon at least 1000 years ago. There are various histories of origin of udon, but the hypothesis that Chinese food, bing which is made by kneading flour and water came to Japan and changed to udon spending long time is widely believed. Udon has a long history in Japan. There are many stories of kabuki and rakugo which refer to udon.

So udon has had a great influence on the Japanese eating habits. So cooking methods and types of udon is different depending on the region. For example, Houtou in Yamanashi prefecture is famous local udon. This is udon boiled with pumpkin, green onion, Chinese cabbage, meat and so on. This udon is seasoned based miso. Yamanashi prefecture has a lot of mountains and doesn’t have enough paddy fields. So people in Yamanashi prefecture often ate houtou instead of rice. And in Nagoya city where I live kishimen, flat type udon is famous gourmet. I like it so much:) If you travel in Japan, trying local udon will be enjoyable.

Houtou (http://lovefreephoto.jp/blog-entry-2387.html)

Japan has many types of udon and some names are unique. I can take udon in this photo as an example. This is kitsune udon. Kitsune udon is udon topped aburaage, fried tofu slice. Kitsune means fox in Japanese. Why Japanese people call this kitsune udon? The true reason is unknown but some people says it’s because aburaage is the favorite food of fox.

Kitsune udon

Soba is also famous noodles in Japan. What is the difference of soba and udon? Both noodles are eaten in similar way. Actually their ingredients are different. Soba is made from buckwheat or a combination of buckwheat and flour. As I write before, udon is made from flour. Except these, Japan has a lot of delicious food. If you have the opportunity to travel in Japan, let’s enjoy Japanese food!!

References
https://www.tablemark.co.jp/udon/udon-univ/
http://www.hanamaruudon.com/about/
ミネルヴァ書房　日本語源広辞苑p304