Noodles ── Soba
Inaka Soba
Inaka soba — thick, dark buckwheat noodles carrying a strong, rustic flavor
Placed at the opposite end of the spectrum from sarashina soba, inaka soba is thick, dark, and carries a strong buckwheat flavor. Also called yamaga-soba, the name is said to have marked it as rural or mountain-village soba, set against the more refined Edo style. A shop by the same name is said to have existed in Edo itself in the closing years of the shogunate.
What it's made of
Inaka soba is milled from a coarser, darker flour and is said to sit at the opposite end of the spectrum from sarashina soba. The color runs dark and the noodle thick. The bite carries buckwheat's own earthy aroma and bitterness upfront, a strong, rustic flavor set against sarashina's refined pallor. Ordinary soba is said to fall somewhere between the two.
How it's made
The grain is milled coarsely, closer to the husk, and cut thick. Where sarashina aims for a pale refinement, inaka's milling and cutting are chosen instead to push buckwheat's own flavor to the front. A noodle of the same coarse-milled idea is also called umakata-soba, a name said to trace to a whole-grain soba served at a shop in Yotsuya toward the end of the Edo period.
Why it took this shape
Just when the term inaka-soba came into use is said to be unclear, but a shop called "Ekoin Inaka-soba" is recorded as having existed in Edo near the end of the shogunate, noted in a diary from the period. Set against the more refined Edo style, the name is said to have marked a plainer soba eaten in the countryside and mountain villages — the contrast between city and country written straight into the noodle's name.
Before you go
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Dishes in the same style
- Baniku SobaFrom the Aso area of Kumamoto: hot soba topped with horse meat simmered sweet and salty. It's said to carry the history of a region where horse meat took root as a restorative food for the injured and ill.
- Cha SobaA kawari-soba made by kneading powdered green tea, often matcha, into the buckwheat dough. It takes on a faint green tint along with tea's own aroma. It is said to be one of the playful noodle variations devised during the Bunka-Bunsei era (1804–30), alongside yuzu-flavored soba.