Goto Udon

Select wheat flour is worked with mineral-rich island water and sea salt from the Goto Sea, and in the finishing stage, camellia oil pressed from the island's own trees is brushed on in thin layers. The oleic acid in that oil is said to slow oxidation, and it's a large part of why the noodle has the porcelain-like sheen, the springy, almost bouncy bite, and the resistance to breaking that define it. The strands come out evenly thin, with a light, easy slide going down. A faint scent of camellia oil rises with every bite.

The kneaded dough is trodden underfoot hundreds of times on a wooden platform to build its base strength. It's then cut in a spiral and gathered into a single long rope, which is drawn out thinner and thinner in stages — ōmaki, konashi, kobiki — with camellia oil brushed between the layers at each pull. The final strands are hung on drying racks called hata and left to dry slowly over several days in the dry seasonal winds that blow from late autumn into spring — patient, unhurried work.

One theory holds that the technique arrived with a mission returning from Tang-dynasty China, reaching Kamigoto — a port of call along the route — and taking root there. In a life shaped by fishing and farm work, it became a preserved food made from what was close at hand, and oil pressed from the island's own camellia trees found its way into the stretching process. The sea salt and camellia oil belong to an island surrounded by water, and the dry winter winds that dry the noodles are just as local — together, they're what give this noodle its shine and its bite.