Sanuki Udon – The perfect Udon guide
If you come to Kagawa prefecture, one of the must-do’s is to eat the Sanuki-udon,trust us, it’s amazing!
Kagawa, in the past called Sanuki, is famous all over Japan for its delicious udon and Japanese do small one day trips just to come here and eat udon.
There are a lot of different varieties of udon, depending how you feel that day you can always try a different flavour.
To make sure you get everything you want out of your udon experience, we would like to explain the udon basics to you.
What is udon?
Udon is a thick wheat flour noodle popular in Japanese cuisine which is usually served warm in a simple type of broth made out of soy sauce, fish and other Japanese ingredients.
Different kinds of udon
There are myriads of different udon styles, just as an example: The people in eastern Japan prefer their udon with a dark broth while the people in western Japan prefer a light brown broth.
The names are functional and mostly explain what vegetable or meat you will get with your udon.
Of course, each restaurant has a policy, so these kinds are bit different.
5 famous udon
・Kake-udon
The most simple and famous version of udon, the noodles in a broth with cut green onion on top.
After boiling, the noodles are put into iced water in order to prevent them from absorbing too much water. Before eating them they are heated in their broth again.
This is the standard way to produce/eat Udon.
・Bukkake-udon
The broth of Bukkake-Udon is different from the Kake-Udon.
It is usually stronger than the Kake-Broth and the amount of broth is less.
In some restaurants you will receive this dish with slices of lemon or egg.
・Zaru-udon
Zaru means the bamboo sieve.
Zaru-udon is made cold with ice and the noodles are dipped in a strong,deep broth.
In particular, people is fond of eating this during summer season.
・Kamaage-udon
“Kamaage” means straight from the pot. These noodles are not being put in ice water after boiling them, so the texture and taste will worsen the longer you wait to eat it since it soaks up too much water.
This is the good way to enjoy the fresh of noodle
・Kamatama-udon
The base is “Kamaage”, before you eat this dish you need to add a raw egg and special soy sauce on top of the Udon.
Others
Curry-udon is less popular but still available at many restaurants.
Other popular Udon menu are：
Wakame （わかめ） – Udon and seaweed
Kitsune （きつね） – Udon and sweet tofu pieces
Kare-(Curry)（カレー） – Udon in curry or curry flavor soup
Side Menu
・Tenpura（てんぷら）- (Deep fried), often seafood or vegetable
You can see deep Fried Eggs, deep Fried Vegetables, deep fried Croquettes and many more. Tenpura is incredibly famous all over Japan and good combination with tasty udon.
We recommend you try this deep fried delicacy.
How to order Udon
Now we would like to explain you how to order udon in self-service restaurants because it’s common style in Takamatsu
Every udon shop serves their udon in a different way. So please use just for your reference.
Order udon menu
As you enter you will be greeted by the staff in Japanese, you will take your tray and dishes and slide it along to the place where a worker will get your order.
If you have decided from which udon dish you would like just tell them the name of the dish and they will usually make it and hand it to you. There are sometimes additional informations necessary to complete the order, for example:
Temperature
Usually, also if you don’t specify that you want it cold, they will give it to you warm.
Atatakai if you want it served hot.
Tsumetai if you want it served cold.
Size
There are three main sizes: small, medium and big (in Japanese Shou, Chu and Dai)
Side menu
They also provide some side dishes such as riceball and “tenpura”.
These side dishes are self-service, so you need to take a plate and take them yourself.
Payment
At the cash register, the staff will count everything together.
After paying, you can put some topping, so put seasoning there as you like.
that’s it.
You’re good to go with these informations!
