Japanese Noodles: Ramen and Udon Recipes

One of the other staple food in Japan aside from rice are noodles. Everyone who eat noodles either know it as Chinese or Japanese, though words like ramen and udon are usually more associated with Japan, while wanton and Hong Kong noodles are more associated with China.

Japan has two popular kinds of noodles, which are ramen and udon. Ramen are thin noodles, that are about the size of spaghetti, while udon are much thicker and are usually made of wheat. They are usually cooked the same way, and their differences all lie in their soup base and toppings.

They are usually served when hot as soup, with a mildly flavored broth though this varies from region to region. The simplest of the lot is the kake udon, which is served in a soup made of dashi, soy sauce, and mirin.

Both ramen and udon can be made with different bases. The popular ones are made of soy sauce, which has a transparent and salty soup, mirin, which has a transparent and sweet soup, and miso, which has a translucent and salty soup. They are all called different names and have different flavors.

There are many toppings that can be used for the noodles, too, like tempura, various types of seafood, pork cuts, beef, chicken, tofu, vegetables, fish cake, and others. The various types also further differ from region to region, depending on the place's preferred taste.

Ramen and udon can also be served cold, though the more common ones used for this is the udon. These noodles are chilled and topped with various ingredients, like dried seaweed. Zaru udon, in particular, is served in a bamboo-like tray and eaten with a cold sauce, wasabi, and grated ginger.

Rain or shine, hot or cold, there is a noodle recipe for every occasion. The nice thing about noodles is that they come in a large variety of flavors because of the soup that they come with, so it's possible to eat noodles as often as you want without feeling tired of the flavor.