Noodles
Okkirikomi
Gunma's home-style noodle stew, cooked raw straight into the broth
The dish grew out of Gunma's tradition of silk farming and wheat-flour cooking. Wide, flat noodles go straight into the pot without pre-boiling, simmered together with vegetables, and the flour that washes off them thickens the broth as it cooks. It is one of the dishes named to the agriculture ministry's list of 100 notable regional foods.
- Origin: Gunma
- About 100 km northwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Wide, flat raw noodles simmer together with pumpkin, taro, and napa cabbage in one pot until the broth turns thick and clingy. Starch that washes off the noodles as they cook thickens the whole miso- or soy-based bowl. The broth runs reddish with miso or a clear amber with soy sauce, depending on the version. The vegetables hold their own presence, standing almost level with the noodle as the dish's real point.
How it's made
Wide-cut raw noodles go straight into the pot without pre-boiling, simmered alongside vegetables. The point isn't the noodle's own bite so much as how it merges with the broth the longer it cooks, and the whole pot is often served straight from the stove and shared at the table. The longer it simmers the more the noodle and broth merge into one, and serving it family-style straight from the pot suits a table people gather around.
Why it took this shape
Gunma's tradition of silk farming and wheat cultivation kept flour close at hand, while a one-pot dish that saved fuel and time suited meals eaten between farm chores. Skipping the pre-boil reads as part of that same practicality. A dish quick enough to make in one pot naturally doubled as a way to get through a cold winter.
Before you go
- How to read a ticket machineShops that use a ticket machine (shokken-ki) often place their most popular items in a similar spot.
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- What staff say, and how to respondCommon set phrases you'll hear at restaurants, with what they mean and what to do when you hear them. You don't need to memorize them — just recognizing them is enough.
Dishes in the same style
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Abura ZomenPork and somen are fried together with a splash of broth, the oil and stock emulsifying into a silky coat on the noodles. Just how somen took root in wheat-free Amami isn't clear, but the dish is a fixture whenever people gather, not least for the August Dance festival.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Related lineage
- Miso Nikomi UdonAn Aichi specialty said to have first been served at eateries in Ichinomiya in the early Meiji era. Firm noodles are simmered in a broth built on soybean miso and brought to the table still bubbling in its clay pot.
- HotoThe leading theory traces the dish to 'hakutaku,' a Chinese noodle dish said to have reached Japan in the Nara or Heian period, its name later shifting to 'hoto.' Legend holds that the warlord Takeda Shingen favored it as army-camp food, giving it the nickname 'Takeda soup,' though no single account of its origin or exact era is settled. Raw noodles and seasonal vegetables are simmered together in a miso broth.
- Joshu Ota YakisobaMigrant workers from Tohoku, drawn to the town's aircraft-then-Subaru factories after the war, are said to have brought their home region's yakisoba culture with them. Stalls lined the approach to Daikoin temple, and the dish stuck as cheap, filling food for factory workers.
- SuitonWheat-flour dumplings simmered with root vegetables in a dried-sardine broth. Once a stand-in for rice, it goes by different names and ingredients from town to town across Gunma.
Contrast
- Kazo UdonSaid to have begun where travelers crossed the Tone River and at the gates of Sogan-ji temple in Kazo, Saitama. The dough is kneaded and rested longer than usual to build extra chew.
- Mizusawa UdonSaid to have begun as noodles served to pilgrims outside Mizusawa Kannon temple in Gunma. The thin, translucent noodles are dipped in soy- or sesame-based sauce.
Also from Gunma
- Fujioka RamenAn unassuming clear soy chuka soba, rooted in the town's diner culture.
- AmanejiWheat dumplings simmered in a sweetened red bean soup, mainly eaten around Shibukawa; Kawaba village calls it amadango. It was a treat during breaks from farm work.
- Ayu ShioyakiGunma's official fish, skewered in a zigzag and salted before charcoal grilling. Sweetfish from the Kanna river are prized for their aroma and firm flesh, drawing visitors once the season opens in June.
- GojiruGround soybean paste, called go, stirred into a miso soup with seasonal vegetables. Made in soybean-growing Gunma from autumn into winter, it has long served as a warming, nutritious dish.
- KatemeshiRice cooked with barley, beans, daikon and other bulking ingredients called kate. Born of rice shortages, it survives today as a mixed rice dish often served on the Tenjin festival day.
- Sosu KatsudonBreaded pork fillet dipped in a house sauce blending Worcestershire with eel tare, served over rice. It spread as a delivery favorite in the textile town of Kiryu and is now found across the prefecture.