Japanese Soba
Soba is a thin Japanese noodles made from buckwheat flour. Soba made from buckwheat newly harvested is called shin soba or new soba which has more rich tastes than old one and many soba fans look forward to eating them during the harvest period. Buckwheat flour is battered many times and then sliced into thin noodles to prepare soba. Soba can be served in multiples ways as they can come in hot soup noodles topped by some ingredients or comes with a cold dipping soba sauce. Soba is served in many locations from fast food soba restaurants chains to prestigious soba restaurants. There are many fast food soba restaurants at the train stations where people eat soba standing quickly, usually around 10 minutes. Dried soba is sold at the super market and people can prepare hot or cold soba at home. Many Japanese people eat soba over new year known as Toshikoshi soba as a way of new year 's wish.
Soba is usually served in hot soy based soup, but cold soba is also popular during summer. Cold soba is served on bamboo tray known as Zaru soba together with cold dipping sauce usually garnished with dried nori (seaweed), negi (welsh onion) and wasabi. Extra toppings can be added to both hot and cold soba such as tempura and deep fried tofu. Same toppings can also served on top of udon which is another popular Japanese noodles and is thicker than soba. Soba restaurants in Japan usually have udon menu as well and serve same toppings.
Soba is eaten with chopsticks and it is not so impolite to make a noise when eating soba. However, a sad story about making too much noise to eat soba caught many people's attention recently. The doctor who were engaged to the daughter of Sadaharu Oh, a legendary Japanese baseball player who owns the world record of 868 home runs were broken up by her because he annoying made too much noise when eating soba. After this tragic story, eating soba quietly became quite common.
