Noodles ── Udon
Himi Udon
Hand-stretched noodles from a fishing town on the Toyama coast
A hand-stretched udon developed in Himi, Toyama, in the mid-Edo period by adapting somen-making techniques from Wajima. It was once presented to the Kaga domain as tribute.
- Origin: Toyama Himi
- About 280 km northwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
The recipe holds to just wheat flour, water, and salt — no oil at all in the stretching, which is the clearest thing separating it from somen. Kneaded firmly by hand and then trodden underfoot with real force, the dough comes out chewy and dense, with a strong, sticky bite. The noodle's forerunner is said to have been called ito udon, or 'thread udon,' a name that comes from the way it was twisted and drawn out by hand as if spinning a single long thread. It's sold both fully dried and half-dried, in a range of thicknesses.
How it's made
The dough is shaped into a flat disc, then cut in a spiral from the outside in to form one long rope. From there it's twisted and stretched entirely by hand, with no oil used at any point. It's looped figure-eight style over two rods to rest, then stretched again — the cycle repeats — until the strands are thin enough to hang on poles and dry. What makes Himi udon distinctive is that it carries both a hand-kneaded noodle's foot-trodden strength and a hand-stretched noodle's twisting technique in a single dish.
Why it took this shape
One account says that in the mid-Edo period, techniques from Noto's Soji-ji temple and from Wajima's shiraga somen — once supplied to the Kaga domain — made their way to Himi and were refined into a distinct local method. Keeping the somen lineage's technique but dropping its oil is credited with giving the noodle its particular chewy density, and it eventually became a tribute item to the Kaga domain in its own right. It has stayed a noodle eaten daily in this fishing town ever since.
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.
- 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.
- 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
- Bukkake UdonUdon boiled and chilled in cold water, then doused directly with a concentrated sauce. Scallion and grated daikon go on top, and mixing everything together boldly is said to be the standard way of eating it. A hot version, using warm broth instead, is also said to exist.
- Chikara UdonKake udon topped with a piece of grilled mochi. The name is said to trace to mochi's reputation as a food that "gives you strength," carrying more calories than plain rice. In the Kinki region it is also called kachin udon, from okachin, an old courtly word for mochi.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- 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.
- Goto UdonA hand-pulled noodle from Shinkamigoto, Nagasaki. Its technique is thought to trace back to envoys returning from Tang China, and the island's camellia oil is worked into the dough for a smooth, elastic bite.
- IwagakiThe summer oyster — larger and deeper-cupped than magaki, taken both wild and farmed.
- Shiroebi Boshi Dashi no SomenWhite shrimp are sun-dried and simmered into a broth for chilled wheat noodles — drying is said to let the shrimp's season-bound flavor be used year-round, often paired with the hand-stretched somen from Tonami's Daimon district for a cooling summer dish.
Also from Toyama
- Bai no NimonoWhelks from the deep waters of Toyama Bay are simmered whole in their shells — said to appear at celebrations thanks to a play on words suggesting doubled good fortune, with smaller whelks simmered and larger ones eaten raw.
- BekkoMelted agar is seasoned with soy sauce and mirin, then set with egg trailed in like threads — its amber color flecked with egg said to resemble a tortoiseshell hair ornament, giving the dish its name; in the west of the prefecture it goes by "yubeshi" instead.
- BurishabuThin slices of yellowtail are swished briefly through kelp broth, said to cook only the surface while leaving the center rare — versions using Himi's branded winter yellowtail are considered a particularly luxurious cold-weather treat.
- Genge no MisoshiruEelpout, a deep-sea fish covered in a gelatinous layer, is cut into chunks and simmered into a miso soup — long treated as an unwanted bycatch of sweet shrimp fishing, its flavor has since been reappraised and spread beyond the fishing villages that first ate it.
- Hoonko RyoriA catch-all term for the dishes served at houonko, the memorial gathering held on the death anniversary of Jodo Shinshu's founder — the season's better vegetables and wild greens are said to be set aside for it apart from everyday use, with the devout Gokayama area of Nanto known for hearty stews of dried greens and local tofu.
- Hotaruika no SumisoaeBoiled firefly squid, its eyes removed, is paired with scallion and dressed in a mustard-vinegar-miso sauce — a spring dish built on squid said to have been fished from Toyama Bay's shores since the Edo period, rising in shimmering shoals each March to spawn.