Noodles ── Udon
Ise Udon
Very soft noodles in a thick, dark soy-tamari sauce
Served for generations at teahouses along the approach to Ise Shrine, this udon pairs very thick, soft noodles with a dark, concentrated tamari-based sauce.
- Origin: Mie Ise
- About 310 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
The noodles are so soft and thick they seem ready to fall apart the moment chopsticks lift them, coated in a dark, glossy sauce built on tamari soy sauce. It looks salty but isn't — bonito and kelp umami and a touch of sweetness come through first, fading into a mellow finish. A scatter of scallion and shichimi pepper brings out the aroma, and cracking a raw egg into the mix makes it softer still. The sauce's glossy sheen deepens with every dip of the chopsticks, part of the pleasure of the bowl.
How it's made
The noodles are cut thick, then — unlike the firm-bite udon of Sanuki — boiled long and slow until all resistance is gone. Once drained well and piled into the bowl, they're coated directly with a sauce simmered down from bonito flakes, dried sardines, tamari soy sauce, and sugar. There's no broth to dip into; the sauce clings to the noodle itself as you mix it in, which is the whole point of Ise udon.
Why it took this shape
One account holds that teahouses along the pilgrim route to Ise Shrine, serving travelers worn out from the Edo-period okage-mairi pilgrimage boom, settled on soft noodles gentle on a tired stomach and a rich sauce that could be served fast. Another traces it to farmers who ladled the settled liquid from their own home-brewed miso — tamari — over noodles made from their own wheat harvest. Pilgrim town or farming village, both versions point to the same thing: a bowl built to be served quickly to people passing through.
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
Also from Mie
- AhodakiOld takuan pickle, once its flavor and aroma have faded, is desalted and simmered again in soy sauce, a pantry staple from the Hokusei area. Its name — playfully self-deprecating, roughly "doing a foolish thing" — nods to eating it well past its prime, a frugal way to waste nothing.
- Arame MakiRehydrated arame, a brown seaweed once offered to Ise Shrine, is wrapped several times around sardine or saury and simmered in soy sauce and sugar. The choice of fish shifts by locality along the Toba coast.
- Bon JiruA miso soup packed with seasonal vegetables such as burdock, eggplant, and pumpkin. Following Zen Buddhist practice of avoiding killing during Obon, it skips bonito or dried-fish stock, relying instead on fried tofu and a generous mix of vegetables for its savor.
- ChagayuRice is cooked in water steeped with a bag of roasted tea leaves. Born in Iga, where farmland was scarce and rice precious, the extra water was a way to stretch the grain further; in summer some households chill the porridge before eating.
- ChatsuJulienned daikon, carrot, lotus root, kelp, and fried tofu are simmered in vinegar and sugar, a dish from Asahi town. Its name is said to come from "chatsu," the red-lacquered vessel once used to serve vegetarian temple food, and soy sauce is deliberately left out to keep the dish pale.
- Fuki DawaraRice cooked with soybeans is wrapped in butterbur leaves into a small rice-bale shape, an Iga-area harvest offering. It is set before the rice-paddy deity at planting time to pray for a good crop, and doubles as a portable snack for breaks between farm work.