Noodles ── Udon
Toshiake Udon
Toshiake udon — white udon topped with red ingredients for the New Year
White udon is topped with red ingredients — pickled plum, salmon roe, red ginger, and more — and eaten by January 15th, a newer noodle custom. Started by a Sanuki udon promotion group, drawing on the old belief that thick, long noodles bring long life.
- Origin: Kagawa
- About 540 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Toshiake udon dresses white udon noodles with red ingredients — sweet red-bean rice cake, shrimp, salmon roe, umeboshi, fish cake, or red pickled ginger — in a nod to the red-and-white color scheme of celebration. Thick, long udon noodles have long been considered a lucky food associated with long life, and adding a touch of red turns the noodles into a festive bowl for greeting the new year. There's no fixed set of red ingredients, so the combination varies from household to household and shop to shop. The custom is said to have been proposed by the Sanuki Udon Promotion Council as a way of encouraging a new noodle-eating tradition.
How it's made
Plain white udon is topped with whatever red ingredients are on hand — umeboshi, carrot, salmon roe, and so on. Some versions include red bean-paste rice cake as an ingredient in the noodles themselves. Eating it by January 15 is said to carry a wish for happiness through the coming year. With no fixed combination of toppings, part of the appeal is said to be the freedom each household has to put its own spin on it, since even a single touch of red is enough to set off the white noodles.
Why it took this shape
Sanuki udon is said to have developed in a region with little rainfall that was poorly suited to rice farming, where wheat noodles took the place of rice as a staple. Access to good-quality wheat and iriko is also said to have been part of why the local noodle culture flourished. Layering the season's red-and-white color scheme onto udon, already valued as a lucky food for its thick, long shape, appears to be what turned it into a New Year's custom distinct to this noodle-loving region.
Before you go
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- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
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 Kagawa
- Aji no SanbaiAji (horse mackerel) is grilled until lightly charred, then steeped in a three-part vinegar dressing sharpened with chili and ginger. The vinegar is said to soften the bones enough to eat whole, and the dish has long served as a summer festival accompaniment to drinks around the Seto Inland Sea.
- Anmochi ZoniA New Year zoni made by simmering daikon, kintoki carrot, and a round rice cake filled with sweet red bean paste in dried-sardine broth, finished with white miso. Said to have begun as a once-a-year treat using sugar, once a costly commodity in the Edo period.
- Ebi Miso JiruSmall shell-on shrimp are pureed with rice rinse water, then simmered with white miso and tofu. Served as part of the roughly 300-year-old sacred sake festival at Uga Shrine in Toyonaka, Mitoyo, where it has long accompanied the shrine's home-brewed doburoku.
- Hage DangoFreshly milled new-wheat dumplings are coated in a simple red-bean paste. Traditionally made around Hangeshō, the early-July turning point when the rains break, as thanks for the season's farm work, and offered to household gods before the family eats.
- Ikanago shoyuA fish sauce fermented from sand lance and salt for six months or more, mainly produced in the Aji district of Takamatsu, Kagawa. It is said to have disappeared for a time before local volunteers revived production around 1998, and it is counted among Japan's three great fish sauces.
- ImotakoOctopus from the Seto Inland Sea and taro are simmered together in a simple seasoned broth. Once reserved for New Year and wedding feasts, it is said to have become an everyday side dish today.