japan times: Warming noodles are just the ticket

["Rowan Klein" <rowanchan@hotmail.com>]

some sumo relevance

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fg20030321rl.htm

THE WAY OF WASHOKU

NYUMEN
Warming noodles are just the ticket

By RICK LaPOINTE

The other day we lined up for standing-room tickets to see the grand sumo 
tournament here in Osaka. It must have been 10 years since I had attended a 
tournament -- it only comes to Osaka once a year.

Back in the days when I first became a sumo watcher, I had neither a 
television nor a bath in my very affordable 4 1/2-mat room tucked behind the 
souvenir stalls in front of Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion, at the northern 
head of the riverside Philosophers Walk in Kyoto. A student at the time, I 
was an ardent early follower of the now retired yokozuna (and fellow 
American) Akebono.

So in order to catch each one of the 15 days of a tournament, friends and I 
would assemble at the neighborhood bath, where we would sit in various 
stages of undress with our eyes glued to the TV hanging suspended from the 
changing-room ceiling. Every day, from 4 until 6 o'clock, we made 
gentlemen's bets as to who would win the tournament and commented on our 
favorite wrestler of the day.

The soft-spoken grandmother who took our bath tickets with a lilting "oide 
yasu" kept an eye on us from her perch that looked down on both the women's 
and men's changing rooms. After getting used to conversing with this lady 
while completely naked and dripping wet, I soon felt part of the community 
she watched over. She treated us all like family. On sumo days she would 
even bring in hand-formed onigiri rice balls, filled with sansho 
pepper-seasoned little jako fish for the starving students. She taught us 
that sumo is really just another excuse to get together with friends and 
eat.

At the Osaka gymnasium last week, I was reminded of that fact. Standing-room 
tickets actually afford a good view of the wrestlers -- and, equally 
important, a bird's-eye view of the fans. For the tournament, the gymnasium 
seats are covered with elaborate scaffolding that gives every ticketholder 
an on-the-floor seat in a semiprivate space. When good-natured Japanese get 
together for any occasion seated on the floor, the atmosphere can quickly 
shift into enkai-jotai party mode -- and grand sumo is no exception.

I had forgotten how much food people bring to the tournament. The small 
feasts seem to explode somewhere between raucous cherry-blossom-viewing 
hanami picnics and the refined eating of "between the curtain" maku-no-uchi 
bento at a kabuki performance. Halftime at the sumo tournament is called 
naka-iri, and by this point die-hard fans have been sitting in their seats 
for hours. This is just the opportunity to break out the last of the fixings 
and wash them down with one more cold beer.

The disadvantage of standing-room seats is the inability to go into this 
festive binge mode. So by the end of the day, after yokozuna Asashoryu had 
won, we headed out and boarded the train at Namba with one thing in mind: 
filling our stomachs.

The weather outside was right in between a crisp, early spring day and a 
winter that just won't say goodbye. We decided that a hot bowl of noodles 
would be the logical opener. Since we were in a patriotic wa mood, all 
pumped up by the sumo, we decided to forgo Chinese/Korean-style ramen and 
eat something more native. While I adore soba, and as a resident of Kansai 
have a sworn allegiance to udon, I was really in the mood for somen. There 
was too much of a chill in the air for cold somen noodles, so we opted for 
the underrated hot alternative, nyumen.

Nyumen, written with the characters for "simmered noodles," is the hot 
cousin of the ubiquitous chilled summer somen. While there are restaurants 
in Japan dedicated to hot and cold soba and udon, there are very few with 
cold somen as the star of the menu, and even fewer, if any, featuring just 
hot nyumen. The dish is more likely to pop up as the final course in place 
of a rice dish.

I am a huge somen fan -- I break down and eat cold somen at least once every 
winter, and make ripping, hot nyumen for lunch all through the cold months. 
Nyumen broth should be a simple katsuo-konbu dashi, seasoned with light soy 
sauce and mirin. The thin, white-flour noodles are complemented by a piece 
of chicken and some shiitake added to the soup. Other green leafy 
vegetables, like spinach or mizuna may be added to round out the dish.

Nyumen

The somen noodles should be cooked the same way as for cold consumption. Add 
the dry noodles all at once to a good amount of rapidly boiling water. When 
the water returns to the boil a minute or so later, half a cup of water -- 
called bikkuri mizu or surprise water -- is added to stop the boil. When the 
water boils again, after just a minute or two, the noodles are quickly 
drained and rinsed in cold water to remove excess starch. It is very easy to 
overcook somen noodles, so take care.

The broth is made in a ratio of 12:1:1 (dashi: usukuchi shoyu:mirin). 
Chicken thigh (avoid less-flavorful breast meat) should be boned, but with 
the skin left on. Even if you don't eat the skin, the flavor it imparts to 
the soup is wonderful, adding very few calories. Like other hot Japanese 
noodle dishes, nyumen should be served with ground ichimi (a chili powder 
somewhere between cayenne and paprika) or shichimi seven spice. I have an 
180cc ladle and a 30cc ladle that make measuring this recipe a cinch.

360 cc dashi (ichiban or katsuo-konbu or a light chicken stock)
30 cc usukuchi shoyu (light soy sauce)
30 cc mirin
50 grams chicken thigh, boneless and with skin
1 shiitake mushroom
1 handful baby spinach leaves
shichimi powder
2 bundles dry somen noodles

1) Heat the dashi and add the shoyu and mirin.

2) Cut the chicken and shiitake into bite-size pieces and add to the broth.

3) When chicken is cooked through (in about one or two minutes) set broth 
aside.

4) Wash spinach and set aside.

5) Cook noodles as described above, rinsing quickly, but not cooling when 
cooked. Drain noodles and place in serving bowl.

6) Add the spinach to the broth and heat until just about to boil. Pour the 
hot broth over the noodles and serve.

7) Garnish with shichimi. Serves one.

The Japan Times: March 21, 2003







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