Kawara Soba (Tile Soba Noodles)
Cuisine: Japanese
Region: 山口県
Servings: 4人分
Kawara Soba (Tile Soba Noodles) is a home-style staple dish. The contrast of a crisp bottom and soft top is the joy of kawara soba. Ingredients and step-by-step instructions are below, with notes for home cooking.
Ingredients
- Cha-soba (fresh green tea soba) 680 g (170 g × 4 packs)
- Neutral oil (for noodles) 1 tbsp
- Thinly sliced beef scraps 200 g
- Neutral oil (for beef) 1 tbsp
- [Beef seasoning] Sake 2 tbsp
- [Beef seasoning] Sugar 2 tbsp
- [Beef seasoning] Soy sauce 2 tbsp
- [Dipping sauce] Dashi (katsuobushi and kombu) 240 ml
- [Dipping sauce] Soy sauce 50 ml
- [Dipping sauce] Mirin 50 ml
- Kinshi egg (thin omelette strips) from 2 eggs
- Green onions 40 g
- Momiji-oroshi (grated daikon with chili) as needed
- Lemon (rounds) 2–4 slices
- Shredded nori as needed
Steps
- Make the dipping sauce. Bring the dashi to a boil, add soy sauce and mirin, and boil briefly to cook off the alcohol. Keep warm.
- Make the kinshi egg. Beat the eggs, cook 2–3 thin omelettes, cool, stack, and cut into thin strips. Slice the green onions thinly.
- Heat a hot plate (or skillet) over medium, oil it, and stir-fry the beef. When the red is gone, add sake, sugar, and soy sauce; cook until the liquid evaporates, then remove.
- Boil the cha-soba about 1 minute less than the package time, rinse in cold water to remove slime, and drain well in a colander.
- Wipe the hot plate clean, oil it, and spread the cha-soba while loosening it. When warmed through, leave undisturbed 2–3 minutes to crisp a toasted bottom.
- Top the toasted soba with kinshi egg and beef, scatter green onions and nori. Place lemon rounds in the center and mound momiji-oroshi on top.
- Dissolve momiji-oroshi and lemon into the warm dipping sauce to taste, and dip the soba to eat.
Rate this recipe
Notes
The contrast of a crisp bottom and soft top is the joy of kawara soba. Resist touching while the crust forms.
Authentic versions are served on a hot roof tile; at home, serving on the hot plate or skillet keeps everything hot to the end.
Regular soba works if cha-soba is unavailable, but the aroma and green color of cha-soba make it feel like true kawara soba.
Warm dipping sauce pairs best with the toasted fragrance of the noodles.
Origin and history
Kawara soba is a specialty of Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi: toasted cha-soba laid on a hot roof tile, topped with sweet-savory beef, kinshi egg, green onion, lemon, and momiji-oroshi, eaten with warm dipping sauce.
Its origin is linked to a tale from the Meiji-era Satsuma Rebellion. Inspired by Satsuma soldiers who, while besieging Kumamoto Castle, cooked wild greens and meat on tiles between battles, a restaurant at Kawatana Onsen in Shimonoseki created the dish in the mid-1950s (Showa 30s).
The crisp tile-touched noodles against the soft ones make for a playful contrast, and it became a Kawatana Onsen specialty. Today households across the prefecture use a hot plate or skillet in place of a tile, cherishing it as a taste of home.