Kake Udon
Huntley Cronkwright
I had never left North America before last summer. I loved travelling, but my summers were filled with visits to my grandparents’ cottages, road trips, overnight summer camps, and water polo, so I didn’t have much vacation time left to spare. But the day I heard of a two-week homestay in Japan, I was hooked. It involved hosting two Japanese students, taking them to school, and showing them around the region, therefore giving them a “Canadian experience”. The second part took place in the summer, where approximately 30 high school students in Ottawa would fly to Japan, in order to learn more about Japanese language, society, and culture, as well as simply broadening their horizons and building relationships. Once I was accepted, I counted down the days before I would meet Honami and Mei, my Japanese exchange students coming to stay with me. And then again, I eagerly counted the days before I left for my trip to Japan, and when I would meet my host family and my host sister, Kanau.
Upon planting my feet in this exciting, innovative, and populous country, I was a race horse primed at the starting line. I marvelled at every piece of clothing, stationary item, tool, and toy, everything seeming more interesting than the previous. The mall particularly fascinated me: I had my hands clasped around the straps of my jean purse thrown over my shoulder, so as not to touch everything I saw. My eyes were wide in amazement, as I zigzagged around the Japanese mall. It wasn’t until we reached the food court that something held my full attention for more than a few seconds. I spun around, like a ballerina doing a pirouette for the first time, as I took everything in. There was a peculiar display case featuring a wax replica of each restaurant’s best selling dish. There were a few places selling fried chicken or something which closely resembled fast food, but for the most part they offered healthy-looking ramen, sushi, various noodle, rice, and salad dishes, and other traditional Japanese food. |
It was like walking into a library and realising by the vast shelves that it would be impossible to even hope to read every book; it was very difficult to decide what I wanted to try, as I struggled between something completely new, or something recognizable, with a hint of unfamiliarity. In the end, with recommendation from our host family, my Canadian partner Mack, and I decided on kake udon, choosing one of the eight intriguing flavours.
As we waited for our lunches we conversed in our Japanese-English mix. We talked about our favourite meals so far, the most exciting adventures we had, and what we still wanted to do. After all, two week trips fly by. When it was time to eat, we all said “いただきます”, the Japanese version of bon appetit, and picked up our chopsticks to take our first bites. The soup broth was hot, salty, yet sweet, and filled with flavours - it instantly became one of my favourite meals. I couldn’t decide which was more delicious: the noodles and the toppings, or the soup broth - but there wasn’t anything I would change, much like the trip itself. |
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Instructions:1. Bring one cup of water to a boil, in a medium sized-pot.
2. Chop and prepare any vegetables or additional toppings you’d like to include: boiled or raw eggs, mooli or daikon radish, katsuobushi (dried bonito fish flakes), nori (seaweed), or pieces of battered tempura, shichimi togarashi (Japanese chilli flakes), bok choy, meat, and tofu are all recommended. 3. Place the udon noodles (typically one pack per serving) inside the pot of boiling water. 4. Drain the noodles in a strainer. 5. Add pre-made dashi sauce (100 ml per 600 ml of water for one serving) or 1 tsp of dashi, 1 tsp of mirin, 1 tsp soy sauce, and a pinch of sugar and salt. 6. Stir together the noodles and the dashi. 7. Taste your broth, add whatever you wish (such as soy sauce, mirin, salt or sugar). 8. Take your toppings and add the ones you would like to cook for a couple of minutes. 9. Pour the desired amount of udon noodles and broth into a bowl. 10. Garnish with remaining toppings of your choice. |