Traditional Japanese cuisine, known as washoku, is now an Intangible Cultural Heritage, according to the United Nations.
Tofu, mochi and miso are a few examples, but it's the buckwheat noodle, or soba, that many consider the humble jewel of Japanese cuisine. It's not easy to find in the U.S., but one Los Angeles woman is helping preserve the craft of making soba.
In a cooking classroom off a busy street in L.A., Sonoko Sakai is teaching about the simplicity of making buckwheat noodles.
"Basically, soba is only two things: flour and water," Sakai explains.
A handful of students gather around the slender Sakai as she shows them how to mix the flour and water together.
=-=-=-=-= added comment
While teaching English in rural west Japan (Takefu city, merged and renamed Echizen city in 2005) I was introduced to the local pride, cold soba with grated daikon radish: Oroshi Soba. One aficionado credited the soba to Saracens in Central Asia. And since the 30-40 km radius to Takefu boasts uniquely chewy and flavorful soba tradition, they claim the True Tradition of Soba. In recent years they opened the "soba dojo" or practice hall where busloads of day trippers and area school children, elderly day-center people and others learn all about the varieties of the noodle. There is a restaurant, museum and gift counter as well, all dedicated to celebrate the humble and sincere treat. See panoramas of the display case diorama showing soba making in miniature, http://tinyurl.com/sobadojo1 and http://tinyurl.com/sobadojo2
No comments:
Post a Comment