Paris sweets, Nara soup noodles
Nyuumen and somen
Hello again! Thank you all as always for reading. I am currently in Denver! Please write if you have any recommendations.
The absolutely glorious run I did off the 6-Chair, Breckenridge
After several days in Breckenridge subsisting largely on granola bars and protein powder (and being told sternly that such slovenliness and the resulting hangriness will not stand for future ski trips), I write this sitting on a bed at 9:10pm, kitchenless, in a hotel room in Denver, desperately scanning DoorDash for a light, noodle soup. Unfortunately, it seems that all of the pho places are closed and the only other noodles are tonkotsu, so I am decidedly sunk1. Can we please get some non-tonkotsu ramen stateside please? Lists like this and reviews like this definitely don’t help the cause. Can Eater please get someone who actually knows Japanese food to write these things?
Calling this “fusion”
In my defense regarding my excessive reliance on ski day granola bar consumption, the “mountaintop ramen” featured at Breckenridge’s Overlook lodge at the top of Peak 9 (<3) is quite confused (yakisoba noodles! with pho broth(?) and “Asian slaw (!?)) and while I have written about onigiri being potentially the most perfect ski day food, I did not fly with any rice to Colorado.
Nyuumen, Somen, Nara
I am pining, really, for a bowl of nyuumen, a warm soup (originating in Nara!) featuring somen, a very thin wheat noodle. While Nara does not carry as much of a reputation for food as its neighbors, Osaka2 and Kyoto, I grew up eating somen, the thinnest of wheat noodles that are usually served cold during the summer dipped in a dashi based tsuyu. Even though I grew up eating the most gossamer version of somen produced known as Miwa somen, I did not realize that somen was first produced in Japan in Miwa, Nara (present-day Sakurai, Nara) at the country’s oldest shrine over 1200 years ago. The technique for making somen then spread to other parts of Japan like Banshuu (Hyoto) and Shodo Island and remains one of the most popular of Japanese noodles.
Nyuumen, a classic Nara soup noodle that is garnished here with shiitake, kamaboko, and mitsuba
While nyuumen is now eaten throughout Japan with many variations, the original practice of serving somen in a warm broth is said to have originated in Nara. Therefore, while nyuumen is much more of a family food than a restaurant one, you will find the dish on restaurant menus throughout Nara. The nyuumen vision that won’t leave my head right now is the coziest of versions that my grandmother cooked, featuring a warm tsuyu broth (dashi + shoyu + mirin/sake) and somen that was then “closed” (toji) with a whisked egg. My grandmother always used Miwa somen, which is still made by hand and is so esteemed that it is apparently gifted to the royal family, but I make do with what I can find at the supermarket, somen being popular stateside. I boil somen, add some tsuyu to a separate pot along with water, and combine it all with an egg. This will be the first thing that I will be making when my flight lands in LGA on Sunday.
A fancier nyuumen with chicken, egg, and umeboshi
Also, Pickles
I turned to the furusato nozei page to see what other items Nara is known for. Furusato nozei is a tax scheme that I understand allows Japanese taxpayers to pay their taxes towards municipalities in which they do not reside in exchange for regional “gifts” of their choosing. While many people use their money for rice from the rice producing regions of Japan, others who have moved from their furusato (hometown) will use their money to support their locale. Having checked at least one site, it seems that narazuke (along with custard filled cakes shaped like deer) are prominently featured for Nara. Sakurai, present-day Miwa, of course features Miwa somen. It lists at 18,000 JPY for 1400 grams.
Narazuke is a pickle that stings you with its alcoholic bite3 as it is pickled in sakekasu, which is the solid byproduct of sake making and ends up with a 3.5% alcohol content. Uri ( a type of gourd) is the most traditional narazuke, but cucumbers, melon, and daikon are also now common. This is not the pickle the size of your hand that accompanies a pastrami sandwich. Narazuke are so potent that you will be much sated by the 3-5 thin slices that might accompany your meal. They are also so closely associated with Nara that you can find butter cookies dotted with the pickles. Narazuke have never been my favorite thing, but I'm always curious to try another cookie.
Butter cookies with narazuke
Notes
I also wrote about Hokkaido food for Bon Appetit last month because I wanted to explore and discuss even a little the increased branding of sorts of Hokkaido. What is Hokkaido milk bread if it’s not made with Hokkaido milk?
Netflix has a new film called Call Me Chihiro (Chihirosan) which I of course had to watch. Lily Frank is in it, and he is also in the Makanai, which he also directed. He’s everywhere!
Has anyone else seen (and cried watching Keegan Messing’s glorious (silver winning!) free skate at Four Continents? Especially love this clip with Chris Howarth’s always endearing commentary.
Paris
I was also just in Paris for the first time since 2021! Thankful as always for a friend who is so generous with her time and her recommendations — including her climbing gym and for joining me at new to me exhibits, like the jewelry at the Musée des arts décoratifs, where we also found this hilarious-to-us piece by Picasso.
Picasso, top right
Foodwise, we also enjoyed:
A poppyseed pastry (a strudel perhaps)? of sorts at Murciano Boulangerie
A coconut / purple sweet potato ice cream / pomegranate / mango seasoned with something like tajin at Fulgrances
Sweet potato dessert from Fulgrances
A sheeps milk yogurt and chestnut gelato at Reys
Ile flottante, this time at Le Petit Bouillon Paramond
Ile flottante!
I felt that there were even more Japanese spots in Paris this time. Rue St-Anne is almost entirely Japanese. and we had to try this adorable series of melon pan from Aki.
And finally, to circle back to pho, Paris has so many Vietnamese restaurants! The weather was so warm that we didn’t enjoy any pho this time, but did demolish an enourmous bo bun.
The snow, the terrain, and the views at Breckenridge these past several days have stolen my heart, but could I live in a city with so little Japanese food? Especially when that city still took us over 3 hours to return to via a very snowy I-70?
Takoyaki and okonomiyaki and kushikatsu - the list of Osaka specific foodstuffs is so substantial as to knock you out, but also suited to getting you back on track after too many highballs.
This intrepid journalist ventured to Nara to determine whether he could make himself tipsy via narazuke. Eating half of a cucumber and much of an uri narazuke as if he were eating a burrito, he reported how curious it was to eat a cucumber, but to only taste sake. He impressively gets himself to a BAC of 0.03%, above the 0.02% that could lead to an “altered mood.”
The soup looks divine 🤤