December 14, 2016

Oshibori (Udon)/おしぼり(うどん)

Oshibori udon, or simply oshibori, is a local dish of some parts of Nagano (aka Shinshu). I've been familiar with this local dish since childhood, and have never liked it. Much to my annoyance, my father likes it very much. The broth contains ground walnuts, ground naganegi, juice from grated daikon, and miso.
おしぼりうどん(または単に「おしぼり」)は長野(信州)の一部の地域の郷土料理です。この料理は子供の時から知っていますが、好きではありません。困ったことに、父は大好きです。汁には、すったクルミ、すった長ネギ、大根おろしの汁、味噌が入っています。

For today's supper, my father made udon, using wheat flour.
今日の夕飯に父は小麦粉でうどんを作りました。

In the evening, my father started making the broth. He ground the walnuts first. Later, he said he had forgotten to grind naga negi first.
夕方、父は汁を作り始めました。まずクルミをすりました。後で、最初に長ネギをするのを忘れたと言ってました。 
I grated a whole aokubi daikon.
私は青首大根を一本おろしました。
For authentic oshibori udon, you must use nezumi daikon, like these ones. My father said he could stand the pungency of nezumi daikon no longer.
本当のおしぼりうどんには、このようなねずみ大根を使います。父は、ねずみ大根の辛味はもう耐えられないそうです。

These are the udon noodles my father made.
これが父が作ったうどんです。
My father completed the broth by adding naga negi, miso, and juice obtained by squeezing the grated daikon. I boiled the udon for 5+ minutes.
父は、長ネギ、味噌、大根おろしを絞って取れる汁を入れて、汁を完成させました。私はうどんを5分以上茹でました。

My father served me a generous amount of udon...
父は、私にうどんをたくさんくれました...。

Well, I wouldn't mind having oshibori udon once in a while, although I really don't think I can like it.
たまには、おしぼりうどんを食べてもいいとは思いますが、決して好きにはならないと思います。

13 comments:

  1. Hello, Hiroyuki-san,

    Like my father-in-law, he prefers the long pink radishes (the ones you used in one of your pickles recipe) than the common round pink radish variety found in Europe saying it's the pungent taste differences. Besides, the common roundish pink radishes are commercial bred variety.

    Keep up the wonderful blog... I love it and hope one day to visit Japan :-)

    Esef

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  2. Esef Ong: Thanks for your comment. I really have a hard time trying to adjust myself to my parents' lifestyle!

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  3. Dear Hiroyuki,

    Even if this isn't your favorite dish, it looks like your father makes delicious udon noodles! I've never had them made fresh by hand before. Please take good care of yourself, and I send good wishes to you and your family.

    Take care,
    Erin from California

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  4. ErinBear: Thanks for your comment. Well, making udon is relatively easy, while making decent soba is very difficult.

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  5. Thanks for showing us this dish (as well as the nuta, which looked amazing!). Walnuts and miso together sound pretty interesting - I'll have to think about trying it one day. And the udon noodles look just incredible!

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  6. Amy: Yes, walnuts and miso can go together very well. The reason for the combination of walnuts, naga negi, grated daikon juice, and miso is that in days of old, katsuobushi was hard to come by in these areas because they were far from the sea, and the people had to come up with a good substitute.

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  7. Hiroyuki, I must be really an awful cook because the only time I tried to make udon they ended up so tough they could kill someone if thrown! I have no idea how to make them chewy and soft....
    This year in Tokyo I discovered the best udon shop in my life. Close to my hotel, so we went there four times.... the owner and the cook must have thought we were crazy... but I wish I could make udon at least half as good as theirs... Unattainable perfection.

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  8. Sissi: Are you that particular about udon??? I think the store-bought frozen kind should be good enough for everyone...

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  9. Not after I tasted the one from Shin Udon in Shinjuku.... After that everything else tastes just acceptable... The chewiness is what my packaged udon lacks, alas, but we don't have frozen udon here, only the refrigerated pre-cooked packages which are certainly worse).
    Actually, I've always liked ramen a lot and we had ramen in Tokyo quite often every year but this year I discovered this great hand-made udon and have fallen in love!
    I don't have high expectations: I will never make it as good as a cook who does it every day and all day, but I must keep on trying...

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  10. Sorry I think the name was udon shin (うどん 慎 )

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  11. Sissi: Thanks for the information.
    I have just checked the website of the udon shop and some of the reviews of them. The shop seems to offer decent udon,... but at kind of high prices!

    Udon does not necessarily be firm. In Fukuoka in Kyushu, for example, they like soft udon. My father says he likes soft udon, too.

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  12. Additional information:

    In Fukuoka, where udon is considered to be originated in Japan, they prefer soft udon. In this YouTube video (Japanese only)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ezaOgLEp_M
    udon is boiled for 45 minutes.
    At around 2:15, the reporter starts comparing the two types of udon, sanuki on the left (firm) and Hakata on the right (soft).

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  13. Thank you so much, Hiroyuki. I had no idea it was sometimes soft. I must say the slightly chewy texture is what like most in udon (compared to ramen noodles for example).


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