Walking to work this morning I was reflecting on the near-miss of almost living in Kayabacho Tower when I moved to Japan 7 years ago. Never a big fan of moving, I’ve been in the same apartment in Mon-naka since I got here. And I still think Kayabacho would be a lousy place to live, every day when I walk by on the way to work. I suppose it would be closer to work, but who wants to base their lifestyle on work?
And who wants to base their foodstyle on chicken? Perhaps in America lots of people do. I decided to have ramen, and with good weather it was fine to do a longer walk around Kanda until I found something appealing. Little did I know that it would be chicken, and weird.
They call this ‘tsukesoba’, which at most ramen places is an affectation (like old fashioned ramen being called shina soba or chuka soba, it connotes some imaginary Chinese authenticity). Tsukesoba or mazesoba tend to be thick, chewy noodles, more like udon.
Well, here’s their special thickened chicken soup. It’s good, and actually spicy enough to make me cough a little at first. I respect that. Pieces of chicken in it, enough vegetables to be interesting.
And then the waitress brought the soba, and it really was soba. This is a first for me, because I think everyone would agree the delicate taste of good soba would be lost on a hearty dipping sauce like the above. It’s more textural at that point (and again, people would tend to think the bigger noodles were better for sucking up soup).
Still, one can’t argue with this for being both a touch innovative and also a tiny bit more healthy. They were well-boiled soba, and I liked how they piled it up with kizami nori.
Although I fear I’ll never get used to ‘chicken and seaweed’ as a flavor combination.
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