Inaniwa Udon

It has been some time to update my blog and yes, work is killing me while I am preparing for my exam too. I just have so much to do! Well, I have been to some cool places and I only stop writing about them because of my work. Now I got a little time and so here we go.

Inaniwa udon is one of the most high-class udon in Japan, and it is different from the typical udon you may see in supermarkets or restaurants. Inaniwa udon is thin noodle and a little translucent (not completely translucent but a little more than the typical thick udon). It can be served both hot and cold, and when it is served cold, the sauce becomes very important because while it has to be good flavour, it cannot be too overwhelming to cover up the wheat smell of the udon.

We went to this restaurant which was recently opened in Elements. Even the name suggests that it is a place for good Inaniwa udon. This time we tried both the hot and cold udon and also some of the popular Japanese snacks, and perhaps we could go straight to the food. The first dish was Cold Duck Breast Slices.

I couldn't guess how good this dish was. It looked so ordinary to me, like only slices of meat with soy sauce, but I was wrong. It turned out to be very delicious. It was very light, both the meat and sauce. I never like mustard and so I skipped it and only ate the slices with the spring onion on the top. Surprisingly they actually went well with each other!

The thrill didn't last long though. The tempura came and it was really ordinary.

At least it was not very oily, and thank God the shrimps were big and very fresh, or else I would just leave the whole thing aside. It didn't surprise me at all except the size.

The octopus cake soon arrived, which turned out to be another delicious dish instead of another letdown. There were tiny slices of octopus inside instead of pulverized octopus meat, and it didn't have the disturbing fishy smell, very well done I must say!

And remember to have it with the ginger in the dish.

The dishes were served quite fast, and when we just went halfway on the small starters, the udon came in. First it was my sister's BBQ smoked eel on Inaniwa udon in soup.

Just the look of it made people drool. The eel was fat and good, but I wasn't sure if it went well with soup udon as I thought it was best with rice. Anyway, my sister didn't stop eating once she started, and I guess that was a sign of approval. Then, the cold udon with American Angus beef and salad arrived.

It looked very much like a western dish, like a bowl of salad. I though expected that because that was what the menu said! Perhaps you can already guess right about the taste of this one, and it is only so-so. Of course, not all fusion stuff can be done properly and well besides inspiring others.

And beware, there was a huge block of wasabi on the top, and you may miss it as it hides in the green vegetable. If you accidentally mix everything so well, you're done.

Then, the best of the meal was here. It was the signature cold Inaniwa udon served with three sauces. The middle one is actually the key of the whole set, which is hot Iwate duck sauce.

And it was extremely delicious! It didn't have toppings or meat or vegetable on it, but it allowed you to enjoy the true and pure taste of the udon. You don't pour the sauce into the noodle, but instead, you pick a little udon and dip it into the sauce and eat it.

The sauce was prepared from duck meat from Iwate, Japan. The meat was fried and then allowed to cool for several hours before being cooked into sauce. You could smell the wonderful duck meat from the sauce and it went so well with the udon.

The udon was superb too. It was not thick like the typical udon, and perhaps even thinner than the typical ramen. The texture was very special, like it was very brittle but also very chewy once in your mouth. The noodle was shiny and translucent, and just that appearance you could guess this was high-quality food. It amazes me to realize that all Inaniwa udon is prepared with hands instead of machine-made, and you can imagine the great effort and skills of the chefs.

This was a very good dinner and I would definitely come back again later. There are some other dishes like the famous teriyaki and egg blocks, but still the udon is the main reason for my revisit. I actually knew about Inaniwa udon already during my trip to Japan in late October, and when I was in Akita, I bought some Inaniwa udon already. This was what it was like, all made in Japan, haha:

And I prepared a quick meal with it one day, with some tasty scallops from Japan too:

That made my day, really.