Yamazen Soba-ya, 山禅 手打そば

[Excerpt from rachel-kwok.com, click link to read original post]

On the night of New Year’s Eve, toshikoshi soba, which symbolizes longevity, is served as a tradition. Due to a misunderstanding (my broken Japanese is at fault), I thought the tradition was to just eat it anytime during the day of New Year’s Eve. Either way, it worked out perfectly because the day ended with me savoring soba twice. It’s never a bad thing to have greater longevity right? でしょう？

After quite a few turns in the neighbourhood of Sakuradai and receiving directions from friendly residents of that area, my good friend and I finally made it to this homey, family-owned soba-ya, 山禅, 手打そば. Just like entering any Japanese household, we were greeted with warm smiles, and of course, reminded us kindly that we should take our shoes off before entering.

For myself, I ordered seiro soba with duck broth (鴨せいろ), which is a type of cold soba served with steaming hot broth to dip the soba in. From the looks of the negi (spring onions), you can tell that the broth has been well-boiled and the taste says so too. The broth was rich in flavor and was just the right temperature. The diced duck were surprisingly still succulent after the boil and bits of the duck skin were served along with the diced meat, which gave the soup some delicious lipids. And as expected, the soba was chilled so, even dipped in the hot broth, the texture remained firm. It was just scrumptious.

My friend had decided on tempura soba (天ぷらそば) long before we got the soba-ya really and when it arrived at our table, I was half-doubting whether I should have ordered tempura soba instead. It was literally a bowl of happiness with lots of tempura-ed yums in a shoyu-based broth. Needless to say, you can see from the photo above, the tempura batter was thin and crispy. I am starting to think that any fresh ingredients can be transformed into love with a little tempura. Though, the texture of the soba was a little softer than mine but it wasn’t mushy at all. Instead, I think having bathe in the broth, natural flavors of the buckwheat noodles’ were enhanced. The tempura soba really had a comforting, heartfelt feeling to it; taste of the warm countryside maybe?

Many praises to 山禅’s soba! I was very thankful to have savored such a tasty meal on the last day of my 2011. To those that are uninformed (I apologize), I have relocated to Tokyo, Japan temporarily. I will update as regularly as possible and I hope you find joy in reading about my food adventures in Tokyo. Lastly, happy new year all!

Love,

Rachel