Noodles ── Ramen
Abura Soba
Abura Soba — noodles tossed in oil and soy sauce, no broth
No 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.
- Origin: Tokyo Musashino
- Besides shoyu, miso, shio and tonkotsu
What it's made of
The bowl holds only soy sauce tare and sesame oil pooled at the bottom — no broth is poured in at all. Hot noodles go straight in and get tossed thoroughly to coat. Scallion, bamboo shoot, char siu, and a hot-spring egg are typical toppings, and stirring in vinegar and chili oil partway through lightens the richness and makes the bowl taste almost like a second dish. Many shops use slightly thick, medium noodles built to carry the tare.
How it's made
Because no broth is simmered at all, the tare's ratio is said to be the entire backbone of the flavor. Soy sauce, sesame oil, and a shop's own blend of seasoning or flavored oil are mixed, then hot, freshly drained noodles are tossed in quickly to coat — the basic method, as it's told. Skipping the broth-making step meant the dish could be served from small stalls and shops without much overhead, which is said to have helped it spread.
Why it took this shape
One account places its start in the student and residential streets of the Musashino area in the late 1950s. Stories differ on the trigger — some say it began as a fix for ramen noodles gone soft and overcooked, others point to Chinese ban mian as the model — and no single origin has settled. Either way, the practical appeal of a bowl that needs no simmered broth, cheap and quick to serve, reads as what pushed abura soba into this shape.
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.
- Cash-only shops are commonEspecially at ramen shops, it's common to find places that only accept cash — often through a ticket machine.
- Foods to look for in summerA guide to foods often seen in Japan around summer — eel on the Day of the Ox, hiyashi chuka, somen, shaved ice, edamame with beer, and hamo — with rough pointers for finding them.
Dishes in the same style
- Betokon RamenA garlic-and-chili stamina ramen said to have originated in Ichinomiya, Aichi, devised from a repatriate's memories of Manchurian cooking. Its name is said to come directly from what customers started calling it.
- ChanraaA noodle dish said to have started at a diner in Moji, Kitakyushu. Chanpon-style noodles go into a Japanese dried-sardine broth closer to udon than to the original pork-and-seafood soup, devised, it's said, for a student who wanted Nagasaki champon but couldn't afford it.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Tokyo
- Ajitsuke NoriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Anago ZushiConger eel, simmered sweet and savory, is laid over sushi rice and brushed with a reduced glaze called tsume — a staple Edomae topping from a fish that thrived in Tokyo Bay's nutrient-rich waters, its slick skin demanding a sushi chef's careful hand to clean.
- AnmitsuCubes of agar jelly topped with red peas, sweet bean paste, and dark syrup. Said to have begun when a Ginza sweets shop in the early Showa era added its own bean paste to the simpler "mitsumame" — jelly and peas in syrup — marking a point where wagashi met café culture.
- Asakusa shichimiA seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."
- Chanko NabeChicken, napa cabbage, tofu, and more simmer together in broth — a hot pot born in sumo stables, said to date to the Meiji era, when four-legged meat like beef and pork was avoided since touching a hand to the ground echoed a loss in the ring. Former wrestlers still run chanko restaurants around Ryogoku, keeping their stable's flavor.