Do you know about the following udon noodles?

・Sanuki udon from Kagawa Prefecture
・Inaniwa udon from Akita Prefecture.
・Mizusawa udon from Gunma Prefecture

Although there are some views concerning the 3rd one, they are known as Japan’s three best udon. In this article, you can learn the 2nd one, Inaniwa udon and its features.

Inaniwa udon is now popular throughout Japan, but ordinal people could not eat or even see it in old times. It is said that Inaniwa udon was born in Inaniwa Village in the Edo era, which is almost 350 years ago and the village is now part of Akita Prefecture, Tohoku, Japan. At first, it was specially made as a gift for the shogun (general) of the Edo government. Surprisingly, it was in1972 that recipe of Inaniwa udon was opened to the public so that everyone can easily enjoy. It means almost 300 years later from when it was first made.

Inaniwa udon is very unique because of the way to make it.
It takes so long time and so many steps as below.

1. Knead well the dough made with flour and salted water.
2. Flatten the dough and cut it into long pieces.
3. Coil those long dough up and put it in a bowl.
4. Hung the dough on 2 bars while extending it to be noodle shape.
5. Flatten the noodles.
6. Hang on and extend the noodles and dry them.

Chefs do these steps with their hand, not use any machine even now and it requires 3 to 4 days to be done.

Usually, Inaniwa udon is served and eaten cold. One or two kinds of sauce are served together, and you can dip udon into those sauce to give them some taste, but you will also feel udon’s slight sweetness and flavour of the flour.

Hot one is also good!!

These days there are a lot of restaurants where you can enjoy Inaniwa udon in Akita, but you should definitely try one of the oldest ones “Sato Yosuke”. There are 10 branches in Akita, 4 in Tokyo, 1 in Yokohama, 1 in Fukuoka (Kyushu), and 4 abroad. It is regarded as the origin of Inaniwa udon and you can enjoy very traditional Inaniwa udon at the restaurants. Besides, for those who are interested in the steps of making their unique udon noodles, the main shop offers a factory tour or hand making experience.

There are various kinds of udon in Japan, but Inaniwa udon is truly one of the best ones because of its soft but chewy texture and flavour. You cannot skip it if you would like to know Japanese udon culture.