Water and its role in the Kansai diet Delicious Noodles Using noted water in the dough and for boiling and soaking Soba (buckwheat noodles) Water is indispensable throughout the process of making soba. The flavor of soba depends on the buckwheat flour and water used, and using water of fine quality when kneading the dough helps it develop an appropriate stretchy consistency, making it easier to roll out the dough after it has ripened. When soba noodles are boiled, nutritive elements in the flour, such as vitamins and minerals, escape into the water. This water, called soba-yu, is especially tasty if good water is used. Soaking soba in plenty of cold water immediately after boiling gives it a firmer al dente texture. Thus, fine water is indispensable in the process of soba making, and it is generally agreed that delicious soba is made where such water exists. Udon (wheat noodles) The major process in making udon involves kneading wheat flour with salted water. Since the wheat flour itself has little taste, whether its flavor can be fully developed or not depends largely on the quality of water used. In the kneading and boiling processes, again, it is water that determines the firmness of the udon and perfects its al dente texture. Because one can easily judge the taste of udon simply by boiling and serving it, water is the key to the taste of udon. Somen (fine noodles) The process of preparing somen involves kneading a dough of wheat flour and salted water and then twist-pulling the dough to form rather thin noodles. Though made differently from soba and udon, in which the rolled-out dough is cut into strips, water also plays an important role in making somen. Somen dough, which is pulled until it becomes almost as thin as silk thread, must have a sufficiently stretchy consistency as well as a pure white color, neither of which can be without water of excellent quality. Tatsuno City, in Hyogo Prefecture, boasts Japan's largest production of somen. The area's Ibo-no-ito (Threads from Ibo) somen uses water from the Ibo River. Low in iron and calcium, this water prevents the wheat flour from oxidizing, maintaining the noodle's exceptional whiteness. Hyogo Handmade Somen Cooperative Association TEL 0791-62-0826 BACK   All images Copyright. 1997 Kansai International Public Relations Promotion Office. All Rights Reserved.