Soba
日本蕎麦
Soba - Noodle
Correctly speaking, this Japanese noodle is "Nihon-Soba" and Chinese noodle is "Chuhka-Soba" which can be noodle soup such as Ramen or chinese fried noodle. So, the noodle with backsheat flower is Japanese original noodle. We eat either cold with sauce to dip or as soup, but almost never fried. It is healthy, however there are many people who have allergy againt the backwheat flower. Just like the pasta chuta or pasta crudo, there are factory made dried noodle and handmade fresh noodle. One way to see the quality of the dried Japanese soba is a colour. Usually the one with dark coulour has inferior quality.
Udon
うどん
Japanese noodle which represents in Osaka is udon, and the one which represents in Tokyo is soba. Of course we get both of them everywhere in Japan, but udon is extremely loved in Osaka compared with other regions. The simplest, and cheapest udon-soup, are kitsune (noodle soup with fried tofu which are cooked in sweet soy sauce) and tanuki (noodle soup with deep fried batter balls which have rest as cooking a tempura). However in Osaka, this definition does not guilt. It is so complicated that the quite same dishes have different names in Osaka and Tokyo.
Ramen ラーメン
Men - Noodle
Chinese noodle soup has four thousand years tradition. It seems to me difficult to understand how come the Japanese Ramen became so popular in Europe, only in 20 years time. Taste, presentation, atmosphere, marketing, or just prejudice?
