4/06/2010

Free choice: UDON

During the short spring break, I traveled to Kagawa prefecture in Shikoku with my friends by train, and ate its famous specialty "sanuki udon," for the first time. Totally, I went to the three udon restaurants, so I want to introduce their characteristics in this post.

First, I visited to Ueharaseimenzyo上原製麺所 in Takamastu City. (please look at this map) This restaurant has a self-service style, very common for udon restaurant in Kagawa. After we ordered the udon, we needed to bring it to our seat, and put green onion, chili pepper, and tenkasu(fried batter) as we liked. This picture shows the most popular udon called kamaage udon釜揚げうどん.


We eat the boiled udon, just being picked up from the iron pot, putting into tsuyu which is the sauce dip made from the extract of dried bonito, soy sauce, and other seasonings. Once the udon was boiled, the quality of the udon become worse soon, so the udon is normally boiled right after we order it, though it takes about 10 minutes until the udon is completed. According to the shopkeeper, sanuki udon is really popular not only among the tourist but also the local people. Therefore, it is always sold out before the closed time. (The restaurant opens at 9a.m. and closes at 5p.m.) Actually, we were the last customers on the day, even though it was still about 4 p.m when we entered. I heard most of udon restaurants make service for customers only during the daytime(11am~2pm). It means the time to taste the delicious Japanese traditional noodle is limited. In that sense, this restaurant was kind of rare, but surprisingly, there is the udon restaurant opens only for one hour. I thought it a little difficult for tourists to manage their schedule to visit there.





These are the pictures of inside the restaurant. Very simple.

Second, we went to the self-service udon restaurant near the Zentsuuji station in Zentsuuji city located in western area in Kagawa. It takes about one hour from Takamatsu city by the local train. The name of the restaurant is Kishiiudon岸井うどん(map). It had the unique style... We ate udon at the GREENHOUSE.



The entrance(http://r.tabelog.com/kagawa/A3703/A370302/37000177/dtlphotolst/P405397/?ityp=4)



This restaurant is famous for the meat udon肉うどん. The sukiyaki taste meat was put on the udon. If you order the niku kamatama udon肉釜玉うどん, you can eat udon with raw egg. The meat udon I ate was so delicious. The price was only 380yen. Attractive.

However, inside the restaurant was not so much clean and narrow that I do not recommend the person who wants to be relaxed, and enjoy the atmosphere.


380yen , Niku Udon


As a whole, I could have a good time at these restaurants, but we needed to decide what we would eat quickly, ate speedy, and leave soon after we finished eating, so I felt as if I was in the fast food restaurants like McDonald's. It made me disappointed... Probably, it is good for the office workers who do not have the enough time to have a lunch. Moreover, I cared that the workers of the restaurants were not so energetic. They did not speak so much; I did not hear they said "Iirasshaimase(Hello)" in a loud voice... though I do not know if it depends on the restaurant.

Finally, I visited the general type of restaurant, not self-serving style, called Okasenおか泉. I think this is the most famous udon restaurant of three. It located here. I ate the cold udon with shrimp tempra(ひや天おろし)as the photograph shows. It was more gorgeous than the first two udons because the tempra was bigger than I expected. Also, I realized that the cold udon was firm, so I had to chew it well...In this restaurant, it was interesting that we could see the skilled workers were making the noodle. I mean the process which some kinds of flours are mixed, and the dough made by them become the thin and long noodle. The workers had the great techniques. If I had a chance, I would try.

Comparing to three restaurants, I could find some differences. Every restaurant has the originality, and it was very interesting. This time, I was happy to visit to the new place I had never been. I deeply felt though I have lived for 21 years here Japan, there would be still lots of Japanese culture which I have never experienced. I would like to keep challenging to new things as possible during my life.

I found many Okasenおか泉videos here;http://www.okasen.com/honten/movie/