Thursday, Aug 21, 2008
What food will foreign athletes and spectators in Nagano get if they ask for the local specialty? Buckwheat noodles!
Feb 5, 1998 | You may come across soba restaurants everywhere in Japan, but Nagano, where the Olympic Games will be held beginning next week, is believed to be the area where soba originated.
There are three kinds of noodles in Japan: ramen (thin Chinese noodles), udon (thick white noodles) and soba (buckwheat noodles). Ramen is popular throughout the world, and noodles similar to udon can also be found in China. But soba is a noodle indigenous to Japan.
While ramen, udon and spaghetti are made of wheat, soba is made differently. It's made from powder extracted from the seeds of a plant called soba, which originally meant buckwheat itself.
Soba buckwheat normally grows in barren soil. The Nagano area is mountainous and not suitable for rice farming, but soba has been produced plentifully there.
Interestingly enough, America has indirectly contributed to the preservation of the Japanese soba tradition. The Japanese government has been trying to reduce the domestic production of rice -- partly because America wants to sell rice to Japan. This policy of the U.S. government is a threat to Japanese farmers, for American rice is very low-priced, and there has been much debate as to whether Japan should import cheap American rice or protect the domestic rice producers. But because of the reduction of rice production encouraged by the Japanese government, farmers have begun to convert their rice fields into soba fields.
Japanese businessmen, particularly those middle-aged or older, love to have soba noodles for lunch. It is easy to digest and not heavy, and does not take time to eat up. The old American and European joke is that Japanese businessmen spend no more than five minutes for lunch because they eat so efficiently, and this is the chief reason for Japan's remarkable economic growth.
You order soba and it is brought to you, and you really can eat it all in five minutes. I am greatly fond of soba, too. But I never eat it in such a short time. First I order beer and have a good drink, then I focus on zaru-soba, the representative dish among the variety of soba dishes. I take a minimum of one hour to finish.
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