frutti.gummi

For me, a nice vacation always include eating the delicious local food. I was very excited to try the food in Japan because I love Japanese food. I wondered if the Japanese food I had eaten all these years is really similar to the real Japanese food. During my short stay in Japan, Kyoto specifically, I managed to try a few different type of food. One of our lunch meals is for soba. After doing much pre-trip research on the internet, Honke Owariya seems to be the famous place. This restaurant has been around since 1466! One of the restaurant's specialties is called Hourai Soba. The soba is served in a 5-stacked 'plates' with various toppings on the side. The toppings include mushroom, egg, seaweed,  and mini shrimp tempura. This special set even comes with an instruction sheet in English on how to eat it! Hahaha.

So, basically you remove one plate from the stack, pour some sauce from the little jar onto the soba, and eat the soba accompanied with the some of the toppings. Then you repeat the same steps for each plate on the stack. I think it's quite brilliant to serve the soba on different plates instead of one huge plate. The stacked plates concept not only looks better, it also keeps the soba from getting cold and soggy. After you finish the meal, you drink the tea which is boiled from the water that was used to cook your soba. This tea is believed to have health benefits. 

In general, I think the soba did taste like the sobas I've had before. This one though feels 'lighter' and fresher. The taste of the sauce is quite subtle too. That's probably why one can eat five plates of soba without feeling stuffed. :)