I have a friend of mine named Mr. Hayakawa. We have been close friends with all our families for already 15 years. When my three children were still in elementary school, we enjoyed a summer vacation in Hokkaido, spending time with Mr. Hayakawa’s two children in Shiraoi for three weeks. This experience has become our wonderful memory.
“Ikkyu Soba” is a genuine soba restaurant started by Mr. and Mrs. Hayakawa from zero. Ikkyu Soba was so popular at that time as a drive-in restaurant, that many fans would come all the way from Tomakomai or Shiraoi, because of the impressive appearances of the large restaurant and the beautiful young okami (a female master), Mrs. Hayakawa. Her husband, Mr. Hayakawa is a man of artisan spirit, so he uses only the soba grown in Hokkaido. He also uses an original soba sauce, which was finally completed after trying out almost all the soba restaurants in Tokyo.
As you can read in any books about soba, you combine “kaeshi” and “dashi“, or broth, to make “soba-tsuyu” or soba sauce.
“kaeshi” is made from soy sauce, sugar and sweet sake, and is categorized into “hon-gaeshi” using heated soy sauce and “nama-gaeshi” using unheated soy sauce. Dashi is made from dried bonito. It is the professional’s commitment for Mr. Hayakawa to find the best dried bonito from all over the country. I learned that you have to age the combination of kaeshi and dashi for days or weeks before it turns into soba-tsuyu.
I remember that Ikkyu Soba only served the soba milled and made in the same day, and only used the dried bonito shaved on the day. The cold soba-tsuyu is made saltier, and the hot soba-tsuyu is made rather sweeter and has two types. Although I was not a soba mania, Mr. Hayakawa taught me his secret way of boiling soba. First, boil water in two large pots and put only one portion, never more than two, of soba into a pot. Then, put some cold water in midstream, and take the soba out when the water blows up again, which should be at 2 minutes and 15 seconds sharp. If you boil two portions in the same pot, you fail more as the boiling time increases. The other pot is for boiling the next portion. Finally, wash the slime off the boiled soba with as cold water as possible, drain well and it is done.
Moreover, you have to start eating the soba within 30 seconds because it absorbs water and stretches to get too soft. I realized then how difficult it is to boil the five portions of soba for five people in my family. Two large pots are not enough for five people, but above all, five people cannot start eating at the same time.
Since then, I gave up eating soba at home and go out whenever we eat soba. I have once watched how they boiled soba following this 2 minutes 15 seconds rule in the kitchen of Ikkyu Soba. I was very surprised to see the staff throw away the soba that is boiled for even five or ten seconds longer than 2 minutes 15 seconds. The Japanese people have liked to create simple dishes, but the simpler the dish is, the more severity is burdened. This is what I felt strongly about cooking soba.
Now, Ikkyu Soba is passed to the next generation. Mr. Hayakawa’s three sons asked me to recommend good soba restaurants in Tokyo, after they told me that they were going to try out the soba at the best soba restaurants in Tokyo as a “soba-training.” Since I was not a soba mania, I checked the website of Mr. Yasuo Tanaka and confidently introduced five or six restaurants that he was nominating.
I don’t know if good soba in Tokyo can also be good soba in Hokkaido. However, I’ve always thought that the taste of soba we eat at lunch and the taste of soba we eat at night after drinking are very different.
As for ramen, the ramen eaten after drinking have a tendency to be made Saltier. When I go to popular ramen shops around Ginza, I sometimes wonder, “Isn’t this too salty?” This is because their sense of taste is paralyzed by alcohol. If this is true, I wonder if the soba-tsuyu of the expensive soba restaurants, which opens at night and will cost you over ten thousand yen, is saltier than the soba-tsuyu we use to eat soba at lunch as a main dish. What do you think?
Anyway, I would love to hear from the sons what they felt in the “soba-training” in Tokyo. I expect the huge growth of the Hayakawa family and Ikkyu Soba. If you have a chance to visit Tomakomai, please go to Ikkyu Soba to taste its best soba.
Ikkyu Soba Souhonten ltd.
http://www.dotown.jp/area/07/0200/0709000129.html
Yasuo Tanaka’s PEROGURI Diary
