Udon

Udon is a thick Japanese noodle made from wheat flour, water and salt: under Japanese labelling rules, dried noodles 1.7 mm or more across are udon. It is kneaded without the alkali used for ramen, so it stays white, soft and springy, and Japan eats it in hot broth, simmered, stir-fried or chilled with a dipping sauce. ¹²

Thickness and dough. Udon, hiyamugi and somen share one simple dough and differ by diameter: hiyamugi is 1.3 to 1.7 mm and somen thinner. Flat noodles at least 4.5 mm wide and under 2 mm thick are called hiramen, kishimen or himokawa. Japan's JAS standard for dried noodles allows flour with up to 0.4 % ash, starch, coating oil, salt, matcha and vegetable powder. ¹²³

Sanuki udon. Kagawa Prefecture, nicknamed the Udon Prefecture, has more than 600 udon shops. Its mild, dry climate suited good wheat, the sea gave dried sardines for broth and salt for soy sauce, and udon shops already appear on the Edo-period Kinpira Matsuri Zu screen. In winter Kagawa pours a vegetable and fried-tofu broth over the noodles as shippoku udon, sometimes instead of New Year's Eve soba. ⁴⁵

Osaka and kitsune udon. Udon and soba shops reportedly lined a storage yard during the building of Osaka Castle, and udon spread in Osaka from the mid-Edo period, when kombu, flour and salt flowed into the trading city. Kitsune udon, with sweet simmered fried tofu on a kombu and fish-flake broth, is said to date from 1893, when a customer at the Matsubaya shop put a side dish of fried tofu on plain udon. ⁶

Wide, thick and glossy. In Gunma, Kiryu's himokawa can be over 10 cm wide, Tatebayashi makes udon from local Hyakunen wheat, and Mizusawa udon from Shibukawa is counted among Japan's top three with Inaniwa udon from Akita and Sanuki udon. Ise udon from Mie is about three times as thick as usual, takes nearly an hour to boil fresh, and is eaten soft with a black tamari broth. ⁸⁷

Simmered and stir-fried. In Aichi, miso-nikomi udon simmers in Hatcho miso in an earthenware pot; the noodles are made with flour and water only, without salt, so they stay chewy while simmering. In Tsuyama, Okayama, more than 50 shops stir-fry udon with fresh beef or pork offal, cabbage and onion as hormone udon. ⁹¹⁰

Ise's old fast food. During the Edo-era pilgrimages to Ise Shrine, eateries kept noodles boiled and ready, so visitors could eat at any time with a dab of miso. The name Ise udon came much later: in 1972 the local noodle association adopted it for its members' menus, and from 1968 small packs of boiled noodles and sauce brought it into homes. ⁷

Udon or soba? Both are Japanese, but the flour differs. Udon is pure wheat, white, thick and soft. Soba is a buckwheat noodle: under Japan's labelling code fresh soba must contain at least 30 % buckwheat flour, which makes it darker and nuttier, though most soba also contains wheat. Neither is a rice noodle. ²

Why it matters to you. In Japan's official food composition tables, 100 g of boiled udon has 95 kcal, 2.6 g of protein and 0.3 g of salt. Dried udon has 333 kcal and 4.3 g of salt per 100 g before cooking: most of the salt goes into the water, so cook it in plenty of water. Udon contains wheat, a mandatory allergen on Japanese labels. ¹¹¹²¹³