It is the end of the year already. Time flies. One of the best things that has happened in my life this year is starting this blog and making some good friends with people from all over the world. Are you getting ready to welcome the coming year?
I wouldn’t usually eat these Buckwheat noodles in the middle of winter (Most Koreans eat these in summer), but it is Japanese culture to eat these noodles at dinner with family at the end of the year, which is today. (It has a meaning of wishing long and happy life, and the noodles are called toshikoshi-soba.) I wanted to bring back memories from my short adventure in Japan years ago, so I decided to make this noodle.
Ingredients for 4 people (for 2 people, reduce all the ingredients in half)
- Buckwheat Noodles 600 g
Dashi
- 1 ½ cups of water
- 1/2 cup of liquid sauce from dried shaved bonito
- 1 cup of refined rice wine
A picture of the liquid sauce from dried shaved bonito.
Side additions
- 2 sheets of laver (Thinly shred them with scissors)
- 4 stalks of small green onion (Cut them into small pieces)
- Grated white radish – 4 tbsp (Squeeze the water out from the radish)
- Wasabi water (mix of wasabi 1 tsp + cold water 1/2 tsp)
Cooking (you will need 2 pots)
- Boil the dashi for about 3 minutes, cool it down first then slightly freeze its surface.
- Boil the buckwheat noodles in boiled water for 4 minutes and rinse them in cold water.
- Serve the noodles on a plate with the dashi and side additions (I added some radish sprouts and laver as a topping but you don’t have to do the same.)
How to eat
Put the amount of the side additions you want into the dashi bowl and dip the noodles into the bowl and dig in. Enjoy!
Caution
It can make you really cold afterwards, so for people who live where it isn’t well insulated, I recommend not to eat them. 
Michael added that it is a very slurpy dish to eat so don’t eat them on a first date.
This is a picture from a near by park where I live and it is for celebrating New year. It was freezing cold, but I wanted to share the picture of the last day of the lights. (It is a bit blurry though I couldn’t keep taking pictures, because of the freezing cold weather.)
I hope you have wonderful, happy and healthy New year.
Happy New Year! 새해 복 많이 받으세요. (Korean)
明けましておめでとうございます(Japanese) 新年快樂 (Chinese)
Related Posts
Spicy Noodles with Green Bean Sprouts (Sukju Ramyun in Korean)
Shellfish and Chewy Noodle Soup (Bajirak Kalguksu in Korean)
Related posts:
Actually, the traditional time to eat Korean cold noodles (mul nyangmeon) during the height of winter, even breaking off the ice from the frozen river to put on top of the noodles, though it has become common practice to eat the noodles in the summer as the popularity of the noodles spread through the country in recent times.
dried shaved bonito what is this in korean? if i read right it says gassochang or gasochang? lol, im not too good.this sounds really delish btw.
Hi tigerfish,
Sorry about the computer error so you had to type the comment again, I don’t know what is causing this, but I will try to fix the problem (It happened yesterday too).
We have buckwheat noodles as a Korean cuisine, and there is a Japanese version as well. There is a slight difference and this recipe is close to the Japanese version.
I hope you don’t have difficulty in finding the ingredients, once I move to Australia I can show you what is available.
I must start learning all these terms and ingredients, if not I can’t have this in summer
The buckwheat noodles look great.
I’ve eaten those that’s served in ice. Is that part of Korean cuisine?
Hi Kat
Thanks for info. It will help me cooking and eating more pleasantly in the future.
Hi pockpock
I will do my best to make slurp sounds.
And I have to add one thing that seems the most important when you eat it. Without it, you’ll waste most of the taste of soba.
You have to make sounds when you slurp it. It’ll make us feel eerie when you don’t.
You gotta enjoy both the taste and the sound. It’s the manner when you eat noodles Japanese style.
Of course, you mustn’t make sounds when you eat other things.
Oh, oh, I’ve never heard of freezing tsuyu, but next summer I’ll try it. It sounds nice on hot days.
Hi pockpock,
Thanks for your compliment. I will expect to see you more often in this blog then
I don’t mind you translating this post as long as you track back (link back) to my original post. Happy New Year!
ps) I fixed your problem. I don’t know how that happened.(My computer literacy isn’t very good.) I hope this kind of problem doesn’t happen anymore. Thanks for spotting it.
Usually the dipping sauce needs to be diluted with water, so we usually do cold water in summer and chill the noodles by adding ice cubes onto them, then in winter we dilute the sauce with warm or hot water and instead of serving them on the side (the summer way), we put the noodles into the soup (do it right before you’re about to eat or the noodles will get too soft and mushy). Next year, you’ll be prepared, although, since you’ll be going to Australia, the summer way, might be better for your toshikoshi soba
I don’t know how that happened, but the comment above was by me.
Hi, again.
Your blog is wonderful.
I tried translating this article into Japanese.
I hope you’ll allow me to do that, I want to introduce your blog to Japanese people who read my blog.
I also appreciate the pictures you took. Both of the scenery and cooking are beautifully taken.
Wow, I happened to find your site, mistakingly typed “toshikosi” in alphabet, not in Japanese… and found you!
There’s no telling what happens in the future. Sure, there isn’t.
I understood I couldn’t what happen in a few seconds. Ha!
How’s your new year beginning?
Mine looks nicer this year, because I found this blog!
I remember I had cold noodles on oomisoka when I was in Japan, so I thought I was supposed to have cold noodles. No one told me I was supposed to have warm dipping sauce.
Then I didn’t need to freeze it in the first place. It would have been good to know that before I had them. I was freezing cold while I was eating them and still cold from thinking about them.
The way you ate your soba is what we call “zaru-soba”, which we eat during the summertime. To make a winter version, add warm water to your tsuyu (dipping sauce). For toppings, I put green onions and tororo (a very soft and thinly sliced seaweed). It will definitely warm you up!Happy New Year, Sue! I’ve enjoyed reading all about Korean cuisine and look forward to your posts in 2007!