I went to the Ashikaga Soba Festival on Saturday with Shinji. Soba are noodles made from buckwheat and very popular in this area. Soba is traditionally made by hand and you can see the process in the photos. First the dough is prepared in a large special wood bowl. Then it is hand rolled by wood cylinders to about 1mm thick. This is then folded over several times and then cut by hand into the individual noodles. They are cooked in boiling water and served either cold or in a warm soup. The cold soba are dipped in sauce that is based on soy but is unique to each soba shop (their secret). After, you are served the water that the soba is boiled in. It is supposed to be very good for your health to drink it. (click on photo to enlarge)
1 comment:
Great blog! Lots of things for us to try/visit. On the other hand, slightly depressing to see all the things we missed :-( Especially the soba festival. A bunch of us are planning to go to a soba making class one of these days. They are more "sitting around drinking" plans than real "whats the telephone number" plans, but it might just happen.
cheers,
david
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