Little wonder why udon is getting slurped up
When the Japanese chain Marugame Udon opened in Vancouver a couple of months ago, sales landed at second out of 1,000 locations worldwide, including Japan. It has now dipped to third spot.
It's not just the chubby, chewy, slippery noodles that appeal. It's budget-conscious deliciousness.
Udon has been around for a long while in Vancouver, though usually as a one-off dish on Japanese menus, but Marugame Udon and another spot — Motonobu Udon — specialize in udon. The latter earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand last year.
While ramen is already popular among locals with its richer, thicker broths and thin, chewy noodles — sometimes made crinkly with alkalinity — the hallmarks of udon are the thick, slightly squared, springy and slickly smooth noodles, usually served in a light broth.
Marugame describes the noodle texture as a “mochi-mochi.” Since it's slippery and not so obedient in the mouth, this is where you abandon western etiquette about not making loud noises when eating. Please — go on and slurp and splash with gusto. It's actually polite and a show of appreciation to do so in Japan. But there's a gustatory reason too. Like in wine appreciation, aeration releases aromas and flavours.
Both Marugame and Motonobu noodles are “Sanuki style,” the Edo-period name for Kagawa prefecture, famous for udon.
Marugame, in spacious renovated digs in a former Ricky's restaurant, has counter-style service. Noodles are prepared fresh daily with a Japanese flour mix and you can watch them being made behind glass as you move along the counter.
The udon comes with kake, BK or curry sauce, and costs $6.49 to $13.99. Kake is a light dashi broth; BK, or kaeshi sauce, is a mix of soy sauce, sugar and mirin, served at room temperature. Japanese curry broth is made from a spice mix and sweetened with cooked onions. Toppings include sweet braised beef, sweet fried tofu and onsen egg, with options of add-ons. For an added cost, you can choose tempura toppings as well. The most popular dish at Marugame is nikutama udon with BK sauce, beef and onsen egg.
Motonobu Udon is a little different. It offers table service and you order from about 20 different udon dishes, hot or cold, costing from $5.25 to $15.75. Most come with a light dashi broth but there are five “specialty” udons with umamifilled broths — spicy tan tan, mentai (pollock roe), yuzukosho (fermented with chili peppers, yuzu peel and salt), ume shiso (flavoured with sweet, pickled plums), and anakake (spicy with chilies and yuzu kosho). There are lots of add-ons as well.
Chef-owner Shin Iwamoto's dashi broth is delicate but umami-filled with infusions of seaweed, shiitake, dried mackerel, anchovy and konbu. The customer favourite is niku toji udon, with braised beef in an egg swirl broth, referred to as toji in Japanese.
Iwamoto's udon noodles are made fresh daily with Canadian flour mixed by a Japanese company with gluten content “between bread flour and cake flour,” he says.
Iwamoto has cooked at Italian and French restaurants in Japan and at West restaurant under Warren Geraghty in Vancouver, but credits his grandmother for udon success.
“I used to make it with her. She gave me recipes and I've changed some of it,” he said. “I've learned udon can have many possibilities. It can be anything.”
“Many possibilities” seems to be his mantra. His Bib Gourmand win didn't surprise him. “I actually thought I was going to win. It didn't happen the first year, but last year, I thought, `Ohhh, finally!' ”
There's pressed sushi and inari on the Motonobu menu as well. The pressed sushi, topped with cured salmon and tuna, and the inari come with a variety of toppings.
But honestly, the udon is what you go for. I was delighted with my burdock tempura and seaweed choice, with an added onsen egg, although the burdock required aggressive chewing. My husband's tan tan udon with braised pork belly, bok choy, herbs and chili oil was as spicy as the fiery orange colour warned. Instead of peanuts in the tan tan, Iwamoto uses sesame paste. “Allergies,” he says. The base broth is made with chicken and pork bone stock, with the pork bones providing gelatin for thickening. It's the second most popular udon dish at Motonobu.
And there are desserts! “I have a Pacojet,” he said. It makes creamy, smooth ice creams to order. As well, there are mochi and sweet potato desserts — none of which I could fathom eating after splish-splashing my way through a big bowl of udon and some sushi.