Inaka Soba

As I've been learning more about soba (eating my way through the text book), I came across this odd set of kanji that I didn't realize was the writing of "Inaka" or "country." Now ordinarily this would have no meaning but I read a few months ago that a famous soba restaurant in Tokyo called Matsugen opened up in New York City and their Inaka soba are drawing incredible reviews. Never got the chance to go in NYC, but nothing stopping me from getting Inaka soba in Japan. Turns out the closest soba-ya to my house (30 second walk) is one of the places that has the hand made, hand cut, inaka soba that I've been looking for. (Matsugen in Tokyo isn't as easy to get to but I will be there just for the sake of a NYC comparison)
First time I went, it was 1pm and the hand cut soba was sold out. ANother things I realized is that the hand cut places usually only have the handcut on special order and limited quantity, at least in Tokyo. This place only makes 10 orders a day, after that you get a machine made or god forbid purchased noodles. The places I ate at in Nagano had at least 50 orders of the hand cut stuff, but Nagano seems to be the expert on these things.
So I went back the next week, early. The difference between handcut and not was apparent, as well as inaka and not inaka. Inaka uses a courser milled whole soba flour so the noodles were very dark, with flecks of soba kernels. These were hearty, hearty, noodles. When you bit down there was almost a crunch as you hit the larger pieces. I personally prefer heartier noodles no matter what the culture - I'll take fettucine over spaghetti anyday and I only eat angel hair once a year. There was a sweetness and complexity that machine made or purchased noodles did not have and the big, thick noodles were much more fun to slurp.
Now that I have a little income coming, I can be on the lookout for some more soba places to drop into in addition to Matsugen. I'd love to try the opposite of the Inaka, called Sarashina, which is a very finely milled noodle, as well as various flavors like macha, mugwort, and ume. As they come up I'll post them.
Here's the "special" back page of the menu with the info on the Inaka soba with the picture of the old soba man rolling out the dough in a pain of a process (no gluten in buckwheat). That means like trying to build something without screws or nails - nothing to hold the dough together chemically.
Translation: Inaka soba is stone ground with its with its hull intact, made from 80 percent buckwheat and 20 percent wheat flour. It is a healthy soba made with the hand-cutting technique.

Waseda's Number One Ramen

Two ramen posts separated by two months, and only two ramen posts in two months. That's pretty sad. I was back in America for a bit with a busted camera so didn't post for way too long. But now that I am back in Japan I can start up again.

This above specimen is from the #1 ranked Ramen shop in the Waseda/Takadanobaba area, one that my dining partner told me that caters to the student tastes. Waseda publishes a yearly review of classes, ramen, and other eateries, and this one took the top spot. Big, Heavy, lots of calories for hte money plus an all you can eat rice bowl. Minoru and I are going to be meeting every Monday for our language exchange, starting with a lunch, so I think there will be more ramen and never ending rice bowls. Although not healthy, its part of Waseda's culture and I may be able to get into it.

Tsukemen aside, there are 4 main styles of ramen, grouped by soup style. There is shio (salt), shouyu (soy sauce+pork/chicken broth) which is the most common in Tokyo, Tonkotsu (literally translated "Pork Bone" but has much more pork than that), and miso (soybean paste with some other heaviness in it, occasionally butter as well.) I have eaten all but miso, and like the lighter ones better, but I did have an awesome tonkotsu in the Ramen museum in Yokohama.

So on to this prized tonkotsu. First, we waited about 20 minutes to get in the shop. Second, what I liked, was you could specifiy the stregth of the broth, the texture (hard/soft) of the noodles, and how much oil is added. I chose normal broth, noodles on the hard side, and no extra oil (not needed). Made sure I got an extra ni tamago too.

Let's get to the main part of this bowl: the soup. Minoru admitted that this was an especially heavy, rich broth. Most tonkotsu is white, this one was brown taking flavors from the pork and soy sauce. Remember, this was the normal preparation, there is an even thicker one. The soup tasted like drinking pork gravy, or liquid pork. Flavor was drawn from boiling bones, fat, skin, meat, everything, for a very very long time to produce a thick and creamy pork sauce. It's rich, tounge-covering sensation was part from the collogen in the bones, a normal occurance in western stocks, but the fat had perfectly emulsified in the broth as well, going back to the gravy sensation, except there was no roux base. It was salty, heavy, and packed a wallup. Many glasses of water were needed while eating this bowl, not that it was bad, it was beautiful, but it was work as well.

From now on I will be sure to order noodles "katame" or on the hard side. Other than texture and firmness, taste didn't offer much. Or maybe that was because the soup was everywhere and stuck to the noodles like a cream sauce.

Moving from there, the the chashu (pork) set on top of the bowl was the best I have had. It was not one of those silly looking pinwheels of belly. It was plenty fatty, but thick and retained the texture of meat rather than the flimsier and thinner chashu, something I want when biting into a piece of meat. The nori/broth combination was wonderful, absorbing the fat and richness of the broth but not becoming soggy. A wetter, thinner soup sinks right in. Green spinach on the top added a nice textural change from the richness, but wouldn't call it a palate-cleanser.

This stall is a master of pork. Chashu is the best so far and if I have to measure a bowl on pure porky richness they win hands down. But I was not in the mood for a BBQ and still wanted to function the rest of the day, and I have to admit that this bowl and that soup kicked my ass. To a Japanese student, who is used to this type of stuff since childhood, I can see how the shop takes number one and I give them a ton of credit for inventing a roux-less gravy and the worlds first pork drink, but I liked the previous tsukemen better because not only was the soup good, but it didn't over power everything else. I like to taste my noodles and the egg always steals my heart. One downside to the thickness is you don't get the contrast of the creamy egg to the savory, flavorful, but not thinner soup, which I find so appealing in shio and shouyu ramens. I will absolutely give tonkotsu another chance, but just not here, and not in the middle of the day. Tonkotsu heaviness is a dinner thing.

Tsukemen

Waseda students love ramen. Actually, lots of people love ramen but because its cheap and pretty well varied, and usually comes with unlimited rice, its a big hit with the college students. (Yes, you get a big bowl of noodles AND unlimited white rice. I think Dr. Atkins just rolled over in his grave and I want to make hte point again that there is no reason why Tokyo-ites should be so thin because this is how most people eat here.) I digress. Waseda and Baba area is packed with ramen places. I think last count was somewhere around 40 but I'll leave that up to someone who knows more about ramen than I do. Check that blog for some really gritty details and history of ramen and ramen varities.

Basics are ramen is a bowl of curly noodles, typically egg based. Rather rich tasting. Toppings, broth and way of serving varies shop to shop, but typically the broth is in the bowl with the noodles, there is a wonderful thing called a "ni-tamago" involved, and slices of fatty pork. In the world of Japanese noodles, there are three big players. You have ramen, soba, udon. Soba is my favorite. Udon is hte most hit and miss. I've had some good ones and some that go down with the excitement of thick worms. Ramen is fun, hard to screw up, and just about every likes it, but I don't think its anything special, but it has a tremendous cult following because there are so many varities and places around. For me, the regular soy sauce or shio ramen is a middle of the road go to, then I was introduced to tsukemen, that takes the fun of dunking and your noodles of soba and combines it with the delicious greasiness of ramen (and the ni-tamago). In tsukemen, the noodles and toppings are seperate from your bowl of...well...whatever you dunk in. Options at this ramen-ya were spicy miso and wa-fu, which was basically soy sauce and sesame oil based. I opted for the wa-fu


Here we have the "tsuke" part of the tsukemen. Its a warm bath of menma (tender portion of bamboo, common ingredient in ramen, negi (scallions) soy sauce, pork broth, sugar, sesame oil, and probably some pork fat from the broth. You can see some lemon peel in the picture and I think it the broth was thickened by some grated daikon. More concentrated than the normal broth of a typical bowl of ramen. It was thick enough and had enough in it so when you dipped the ramen, the soup adhered very well. Some of hte first bites were pretty greasy actually very greasy, could feel the grease all over when I swallowed. Grease is part of the ramen experience...this is not exactly health food or clean eating like soba is. Flavors when the ramen is in the broth are much more diluted...less grease, spice, etc. This stuff had body to it, perfect for clinging to the noodles. And it was a lot more fun eating the ramen this way and fishing out all the pieces of menma and dropped goodness from the bowl. You could also combine ingredients the way you wanted, like wrapping some nori around the noodles then dunking, trying a little nori on its own. This nori was a nice texture, not paper thin like most yakinori. A bit thicker and held its own against dunking in the broth without collapsing into a limp mess.
So on to a little about the ramen and toppings. Ramen was cool, not chilled, but definitely not right out of the hot water. Noodles, with the exception of udon, because it is so thick, definitely beloing outside of hot broth. The soften too much in a hot broth and lose al dente rather quickly. To Japanese, al dente may not be a good thing, given how much more like like soft food than Americans but to me, and my italian blood, its al-dente or nothing. This held al dente very well and alone you could taste the flavors in the noodles better. The egg, flour, little butter maybe. Ramen isnt usually hand-made, but the good noodles absolutely carry a flavor. Pork was a bit too thick and fatty for my liking. This is the one ingredient best sitting in a pot of broth to soften it up a bit. For tsukemen, pork shavings rather than slices would be better. If I make it, I'll try this way. The dip in the broth wasnt enough to soften up this log of fat and meat, and the dish would have been better without it. But a leaner cut of roasted pork, close to shaved thin, dunked into the soup would be magical.

Speaking of Magic: Ni-Tamago in Action
Just when I thought I was getting close to replicating a ni-tamago, this ramen shop throws a new twist in. This was the best ni-tamago I've eaten so far. And not because of that jelly-like yolk, but the white this time stole the show. To clarify, a ni-tamago is essentially an onsen tamago in reverse. Solid white (hard boiled) and jelly-like, not runny yolk. Onsen tamago has a barely coagulated white and a sold, but not chalky yolk. This egg though nailed the yolk perfectly white keeping the white from becoming rubbery like a hard-boiled. Only way to pull this off is to cook the egg under boiling. Probably around 90 degrees C or maybe lower. This will give the yolk time to turn to jelly while not turing the outermost portion of the egg into a white tire. The egg was taken out of some sort of warm bath immediately before serving, which had to be under 60 degrees so the yolk does not solidify. Bath was something more on the sweet than salty. The outside of the egg is stained very lightly, not a tan or brown from soy sauce. Above pick is the egg simply split by my chopsticks and the bottom is with the yolk inverted. Slight chalking of the yolk on the very outside, but nothing to complain about. Just goes to show how delicate the preperation is, that a few degrees or seconds too long will blow the perfect ni-tamago. These ramen shops must have this down to a science.

Egg-speriments 1 and 2

Corny title, but fitting.

I've written about the wonders of Japanese egg preparations before. Got the chance to try 2 today. One complete failure, one semi success.

Egg-speriment 1: Quicky Onsen Tamago
Got this method from the sobaya-san at asakusa. Crack an egg in a small bowl or cup. Add boiling water. Microwave for 1 minute to get a quick and easy onsen tamago without the need for a temperature-controlling device or patience. I was skeptical. At best I thought this will turn out somewhere between poached and onsen.

Results: Meltdown/slight explosion. What soba-ya san left out was what power to use. High is not it. Egg was poorly poached at best. Whites and yolk were too hard for anything enjoyable. Plus, around the 55 sec mark a hole ruptured in the white casuing eggy water to spray in the microwave. Not cool. Medium setting next time.

Egg-speriment 2: Ni-tamago
Bit more success. Cooked 5 eggs in boiling water for 6 minutes and 20 seconds. Removed them to an ice bath for about a minute, peeled them, and ate them on top of curry after about 10 miuntes. What the ni-tamago is about is a hard boiled white with a yolk that is oozy and soft but not runny and definitely not chalky. We are going for a yolk texture that will hold itself when the egg is split in half using a fishing line or cheese cutter and can be stuck on top of a bowl of ramen or other partially soup-like food. This was very close. Yolk was probably a bit too runny for these eggs to be cut in half for a ramen-like dressing. I would go to 7 minutes in a boil before hitting the icebath. If 7 minutes results in any chalkiness of the outer portion of the yolk, I'd go 6 minutes on boil, remove from heat for 1 minute, then ice bath.

Taste of the Old Country

Some notes on my Japanese biscotti making experience...

Family loved them. Biscotti appealed more to the family than the chocolate chip cookies or pumpkin pie that was made in the past. Explanation was that they were not sweet, or very sweet. Still don't understand the way Japanese people measure sweetness. There is plenty of cake out their that they pay crazy prices for and the japanese sweets are the sweetest things on earth. As far as cookies go, sweet is bad.

Tasting notes. I did a few things differently because I was not in my kitchen. First, I used almond extract because there is no anise in Japan and I thought almond would go better with Japanese people. Not the original taste, definitely more suited for tea or milk than coffee or red wine.

Second, the walnuts in the house were store-bought chopped. Not hand-chopped. Size of the walnuts were smaller overall than my typical preparation. I think they tasted better this way. The oils from the walnuts were better able to get into the cookie. But I also like enormous pieces of nuts in my biscotti. Solution: Use whole or halved nuts plus some pulverized dust in a food processor. Note the size of the pieces as well as texture of the crumb. Light, uniform (see item 4 below after reading item 3)

Third, I had no access to a broiler and instead of using the Grandpa method of 1 minute toasting under the broiler, both sides I did 20 mins in a 300 degree oven after cutting and standing the biscotti up. Much easier, less burns on hands and cookies. Don't know how much this affected the 4th and most important tasting note...

Fluffy? Light? Flaky? Where did this come from? Biscotti are typically pretty tough customers. They are hard, and supposed to be hard. Not rock solid, but a heavy hitting cookie. These were the lightest biscotti I ever ate. Light on the tounge and in the hand. As they were baking, they puffed up more than I have ever seen. Wish I had taken a picture because I was thinking there was no way I was cutting these buggers without them breaking at this height. They looked like bread loaves in the oven. I have to say, these have to be the best I've made. And I'm in Japan. When I go back to the states, I'll have try again. Using a combination of Grandpa toasting style and the conventional. Possible causes of the delightful lightness

FRESH BAKING POWDER. This is obvious but maybe not the entire explaination. I bought baking powder and used it. Was not sitting around and not past expiration.

Usage of shortening rather than butter. Grandpa's recpie has both ways but have only used butter up till today. I don't know enough about baking science to make a call on this one but according to Ochef.com, shortening's higher melting point allows flour and eggs to set and you get less spread and more fluff to your cookie. But this is in the context of chocolate chip cookies, not biscotti, which are formed into loaves, not dropped on a pan, hence spread should not be much of an issue. There is only expansion. Another difference is shortening does not impart a creamy texture, but biscotti are not creamy so on that account, butter is the loser, I should continue with shortening for any non-spreading effect it has.

Final bake at 20 mins in 300 degree oven. This is a wild guess, but maybe the remaining water was able to evaporate in a more orderly fashion this way instead of the Grandpa broil method, leaving a more uniformly dried cookie.

Recipe:
3.5 cups flour plus more for dusting
1/2 cup shortening
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 (depending on taste) TBSP extract
3 tsp baking powder FRESH
1 cup stuff you want in the biscotti (nuts/fruit)

Whip shortening and sugar until creamy. Add eggs 1 by 1 and continue mixing. Add extract. In separate bowl sift flour, baking powder, salt. Form well and add wet into dry. Add nuts and/or fruit Mix to a workable dough. May need to add more flour.
Flour a cutting board and hands, preheat oven to 350. Grease pan or use parchment paper (my new love) Form dough into 3 or 4 loaves of uniform thickness. Bake 25 mins until outside is golden brown.
Remove from oven and cut into desired length, slightly on diagonal is nice. Stand biscotti on baking tray at least 1cm apart. (using metric now in Japan). Bake for 20 more minutes at 300 degrees. Remove, let cool, store outside of fridge in metal tin.

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.

Mar-De Napoli

It took me more than 3 months to get to one, but I finally hit one of the 3 Vera Pizza Napolitana pizzarias in my area. This one was Mar-De Napoli in the Yoga section of Setagaya-ku. It is the 239th certified Vera Pizza Napolitana Pizzaria in the world and the first one that I've gone to...period. Never looked for one in the States and the ones in Italy are all wonderful so don't count.

Website its got a few branches, but this Yoga branch is the cerified one.

Went the the family and two family friends so that made us 8 people which called for a lot of food. By car, took about 10 mins. By train I would guess 15-20. There was more than pizza, but I'm just going to focus on that. Most of the pizza menu consisted of Italian-style pizzas but a few Japanese-style toppings snuck in. Host mother was all over one of them and ordered two unfortunetately. There were some salads and pastas ordered as well. The spaghetti carbonara was excellent, but a little lacking in eggs. They used a different type of bacon that was not pancetta that gave the dish a very smoky, but not a bad flavor.


So now the pizza. This sign was in front of the pizzaria. Rough translation "The main branch of Pizzaria Mar-de Napoli in Setagaya has been chosen as the 239th Vera Pizza Napolitana in the World." Let's see how many more of these seals I can take pictures of before returning to America. Needless to say, I am very excited at this point.
Here's the front of the store. Looks legit to me.....

This is a lunch deal if I've ever seen one. 5 courses in including a pizza course for 1600 yen. Next time I would go for one but I was after pizza and host mother gladly ordered 5 on a bunch of pasta and salad. It really tasted like being back in America as far as the pizza, pasta, and salad went. There were also two gratins that were rice based and japanese influenced. Kind of a cheesy seafood mess baked on rice. Tasted good, but not what I was after.

The oven. Wood buring, lots of capacity. Most pizza I saw in it were two pies (individual size) but could handle more. Love the tile on the outside. I really doubt this beauty was Made in Japan.
While we were waiting for about 20 mins to get a table (Good sign) there was one little Japanese guy occasionally assisted by a woman making pizzas. At bit strange to see a Japanese guy doing this. They had a nice set up. Everything laid out, organized on a marble table. Flour bucket on the side and rack after rack of resting dough. Menu



The technique was incredible. THey had the marble counter to shape the pizzas properly on the table top, but also did a crazy mid-air sideways roll at the end. Incredibly fast, making the roundest pizzas I've ever seen. Now there is no rule against slightly oblong pizzas in Vera Pizza like there is as far as oven temperature and ingredients, but seeing perfect circle after perfect circle was amazing. Take a look at the videos. The crust was very very thin. Also, they left about an inch and a half of uncovered crust on the edges.
It's dark, but you can see the wood and saw dust occasionally added. Yes, sawdust. Little smoky flavor in there.
Fire was a bit low I think. It got the pizzas cooked quick enough, but if you see the firing video, the pizza had to be moved and rotated by hand very close to the fire. You must turn it, but the manhandling was a bit odd and took time away from making new ones. Had the fire been big enough, only one pizziaolo would have been necessary.
Results...odd firing technique aside this is Vera Pizza. Sauce was naturally sweet and definitely san marzano. Flavored simply. Bit of garlic, oregano. Just a bright red sauce. Mozzarella and basil were fresh. Pizza was incredibly light. Second only to Bafetto in Rome as far as lightness. Definitely need a fork to eat this one. Because the crust was so light an floppy. Texture and flavor were excellent. Tasted like yeast, wheat, smoke, a little heavy on salt in the crust. One thing that was out of balance.
Bubbly goodness.
Thin
This one had gorgonzola, smoked mozzarella, spinach, prosciutto sausage. Everything light. Best part of all the pizzas, as it should be, was the crust.

Wa-fuu (japanese style.) Seafood, mozzarella, green onions touch of cream, some odd mayo/fish egg mix on the bottom. My least favorite, host mother ordered two. She loves the mayo stuff. The toppings arent pretty but check out those bubbles. Now thats pretty. Apparentlt VPN does not certify based on what else the pizzaria makes outside of hte 4 standard VPN pizzas.