I’m not pointing any fingers at certain noodle shops in the TC (cough-/..GaSP-.^%spIt :: Tanpopo), but really, Soba is not really hard to make. Without going into a righteous condemnation of certain St. Paul noodle vendors, I’d like to share with you how the magic happens.
There is a great mythology out in public food knowledge that MSG is that unidentifiable, smooth, je ne sais quoi that makes anything magically delicious. I discovered one day (that being earlier this week) that though a Japanese man invented MSG, the real secrets have been hiding out in traditional Japanese cooking technique all along.
Enter: Glutamates.
While making hot soba soup from scratch, I discovered a finger-dipping, blood pressure raising sauce that changed me. Basically, it’s kombu, dried shiitake, and dried anchovies soaked in soy sauce and sake for hours followed by the adding of mirin, sugar, and water with some low application heat to slowly simmer it away into a loose syrup. Throw in some katsuo boshi (shaved, petrified bonito), and let stand for 3 minutes. Strain, consume, repeat. It should look like soy sauce, just more syrupy. Grab the recipe here.
I’ve used MSG before, and it’s pretty bloody good, but it didn’t compare to the painfully smooth, meaty, drug-reaction inducing delciouness. This is the elusive umami. It really isn’t a flavor as much as a sensation. I think you should make this stuff and see for yourself. The chief difference between this natural glutamate sauce and your $2 pack of white powder is refinement – difference between the rough tannins of a young, over macerated Yellowtail and a 20 year old Médoc.
The soba fell into place. Good dashi is easy to make, and even the powdered stuff is fine for this. You add a teaspoon or so of the seasoned soy to the dashi. Tasting it to figure out the right amount is really the way to go. Drop in some al dente soba noodles, add some shichimi (that’s Japanese seven spice chili powder), and pile high thin sliced green onions.
And then, you may find yourself adding the magic sauce to everything from pasta, to tuna salad, to beef soups – fuck, I don’t know, put it on ice cream. It’s that good.
