五色納豆そば (Five flavored Natto Soba)

Natto and Soba are pretty common together. I've seen recipes online written for a neba-neba creation with natto, okra, and an egg yolk. Mostly written by people longing for a taste of Japan. Until now, never saw such a creation in a soba restaurant but there was one under my feet everyday at Sangenjaya station...my first and last subway stop everyday. It was an excellent soba-ya at that, offering handcut noodles and fresh wasabi. Not the powdered or artificial stuff. They had various soba dishes both hot and cold, including some of my winter favorites...soba served along side a hot broth of tempura a shrimp, chicken, or duck. Soba is too good immerse completely in hot soup and this strikes a good balance between delicious cold soba and a warm soup for winter. But enough of that...I'll be back at this restaurant since I pass it so often. So on to my neba-neba.


So here it is. 5 flavor (but really was 6) natto soba. It was all about cool, slippery, slimy foods that are often eaten in the summer to stay cool. Starting from 11 o clock: mushrooms. Probably honshimeshi. Most disappointing part of the dish. Seems like they were either boiled and steamed beyond flavor retention. It was cool having mushrooms because they are delicious, but they really weren't needed. Peeking out at around 12:15 is okra, sliced. Japanese use it in a lot of things here and it is one of the well known neba-neba foods. There was just enough to be noticable, but not overwealming. Usually its not one of my favorite vegetables but it was there for the theme.On to the good parts. Located at center and 6 is a soft-boiled egg and grated nagaimo (tororo). Yolk was not raw, slightly thickened. Japanese sure can do eggs well. They know how to change the time and temperature to get the yolk and white proteins to react in the correct way for different textures and flavors. Nagaimo is a potato that when grated, produces a cool, white, slime. This may be tough to get in the states...both the potato and proper grater. Flavor pretty neutral, slightly earthy. Close ups of both below.

Ah..natto, and a beautiful little okra in the corner. Well, natto is natto, king of neba-neba. I tasted each bit seperately than mixed together. Easier said than done because every ingredient was sticky and the soba was pretty long. The mixture was not homogenous by any means. So I got many different ratios of flavors as I was eating. The tororo sort of globbed with the shredded nori which wasn't cool but I think unavoidable. This is not a pretty dish at all. Natto was hardest to eat because it didnt stick to the soba too well as I picked it up and dipped it in the tsuyu that was provided in the style of cold soba. What set the restaurant apart in my mind was the quality of hte tsuyu and the wasabi provided with the soba. Tsuyu was complex, not to sweet or salty. What came out was smoky. Lots of dashi and katsuobushi were used. Fresh wasabi does not kill you like the powdered stuff does and is not a very bright green. The color was what first led me to think it was fresh instead of powedered. It's spicy and tastes like wasabi, but doesnt leave you dying. After the lunch, I got a pot of soba yu or hot soba water to mix with the remainder of the tsuyu and any neba neba items that dropped in the pot. Didn't need all that much because the tsuyu itself was not overpowering.
All mixed together
When you put some of my favorite Japanese things together, soba, egg, natto, tororo together in one dish it has to be good. This is a must do at home and I can't wait to see my friends and parents squrim. Soba is such a fun and delicious food...healthy too. Probably hte best carb you can get easily in Japan. It's sweet and early and as long as you dont have it sit warm in soup the texture is amazing. Udon is so so, but I have found some good spots. Ramen...well, everyone likes ramen. But soba is king. Simple, delicious, versatile.