Every August a bunch of foreigners (from all different countries–USA, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Brazil, Korea and Mongolia last year) who are all studying near Tokyo come to Nanae and other towns and cities in Hokkaido to have a 2 week homestay. During the day they visit schools and experience the culture of Japan. Lucky for me, I got to participate in all of these fun activities. One of the highlights was making soba. Soba noodles are grey-ish in color because they are made with buckwheat flour rather than wheat flour. They can be eaten hot or cold but are a very popular summer dish served cold on a bamboo strainer above a plate, dipped into a cup of cold soy sauce based broth and slurped up.

A group of older Nanae citizens taught us and helped us to make the soba.

Water is added to buckwheat flour in a very wide, shallow bowl and stirred gently with just the fingertips. Once the dough comes together into little pebbles it is kneaded into a big ball and then rolled into a big, flat circle and folded in half. There are two tools used to cut the noodles. One is a kind of guide to make sure the knife cuts straight and even and the other is a big rectangular-ish knife. The goal is to cut all of the strands into uniform length but this was much harder to do than it looked (especially fast). Then the noodles were boiled quickly and then rinsed with cold water to stop the cooking and lower the temperature.

Typically zarusoba (this cold soba dish) is eaten accompanied by negi (a long, green onion) and strips of nori (seaweed paper that is used in sushi rolls). Often one or two pieces of tempura (delicately deep-fried battered vegetables and/or seafood) round out the meal. This day we had tempura squid, shiso leaves, shiitake mushrooms, pumpkin, green pepper and maybe some other vegetables.

Hopefully these photos will help you visualize this whole process. It should be noted that most people just used packaged dried soba that they buy at the supermarket just like we buy spaghetti. Also, soba noodles are eaten as a lucky New Year’s food because they are so long and are thought to ensure a long life. I also recently learned that buckwheat isn’t actually a grain it’s a ???? so a serving of noodles is not only a serving of grain but also a complete protein. One further side note: it was a complete novelty to Japanese people the first time I brought sesame noodles to a potluck– they never eat soba noodle salad here! Too bad for them because it’s de-lish!<a