Sobalier Gathering

I was invited to attend a gathering of "sobaliers". Not wine sommeliers, but experts on soba. The event took place at a temple on the outskirts of Tokyo in Nerima-ku. In the morning we watched as soba was made from scratch using a blend of buckwheat from Hokkaido, Tochigi and Yamagata. Kobayashi Sensei was from a soba restaurant, Oji. Mixing about 10% water to 90% buckwheat flour and carefully rolling it out to then be cut with a special soba knife.

The temple bells began to ring and we all gathered in front of the jizo in front of the temple. In the background you could hear the chanting by the temple's priest.

We all offered up senko incense to the jizo, lined up to give our thanks as we placed the senko in the ashes and retreated to inside the temple. The street is actually lined with 11 temples on this side street.

A rakugo artist offered up a talk of soba, the history, its health benefits, the art of making soba and of famous shops around Tokyo. It is a large group of about 50-60 people and at 40 years old, I am on the young side. Most of them are elderly men with a few spouses tagging along. The event is quite serious.

In the Buddhist tradition we should attain to be happy. 

The rakugo artist uses his sensu fan as chopsticks to pretend to be eating soba.

Soba no koshi (texture)

tsuyu (the dipping sauce)

1. taste the soba

2. taste the tsuyu

3. add yakumi (negi)

4. only dip 1/3 of the soba into the tsuyu

5. slurp with force

6. soba-yu

We are invited to move into the dining area where we can try the handmade soba. It is a serious time and much like sommeliers discussing the merits of wine, I am surrounded with sobaliers who are deconstructing the soba. It is so serious it lacks the joie de vivre I came looking for.

Soba comes from Canada, Australia and China.

The soba-yu added to the tsuyu at the end helps to bring out the umami in the sauce of katsuo, soy sauce and mirin.