Soba 蕎麦
Thin noodles made from buckwheat flour, often mixed with some wheat flour. They are eaten cold with a dipping sauce or hot in broth.
About Soba
- What it is: Buckwheat noodles about as thick as spaghetti. Zaru soba is served cold on a bamboo tray with a dipping sauce, and kake soba comes in hot broth. Toppings include tempura, fried tofu and raw egg.
- Styles: Izumo soba from Shimane is one of Japan's three great soba styles, alongside Iwate's wanko soba and Nagano's Togakushi soba. The whole buckwheat seed is ground with its husk, so the noodles are darker. Warigo soba comes in three stacked round lacquered dishes.
- Where to try it: Soba restaurants, family restaurants and izakaya, and standing soba counters at busy stations where you buy a ticket from a machine. Nagano and Yamagata are also known for soba.
- How to eat it: For Izumo warigo soba, pour the sauce straight over the top dish rather than dipping, then pass what is left down to the next dish. Slurping is normal. At the end, mix sobayu, the noodle cooking water, into the leftover sauce and drink it.
- Price: Simple soba dishes are usually around 500 to 1,000 yen.
SeasonAll year
Known for it
Checked against: Soba | japan-guide.com · Specialités | Izumo City · Izumo Soba Guide | Japan Activity.
Soba on Shibuya246
Photos and stories from the blog, as they were written at the time.
Food & Drink
Izumo Soba
When visiting Izumo Taisha I tried the well known Izumo Soba. It was a little dry but otherwise quite tasty.