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Out of all the udon varieties they’ve got in Japan, mostly making changes to the broth, or mixing different ingredients into the noodle, this one surely is a unique variety of the dish!
Ippon Udon: A Single Giant Udon Noodle
It's hard to really imagine what ippon udon (一本うどん, or single noodle udon) is going to be like when you just hear the name of the dish. Of course, an ordinary bowl of udon will look something like what you'd get at Usami-Tei Matsubaya in Osaka, the originator of the popular kitsune udon: a tangled of noodles piled on top of each other in a nice warm broth made of katsuo-bushi【鰹節:かつおぶし】(bonito flakes) and konbu【昆布:こんぶ】(Japanese Kelp), with a soy sauce based flavor.
That's not exactly what you're going to get with ippon udon… but there's no point sitting and wondering about it when it's about to be placed right in front of you!
Let's go to see for ourselves.
That is one massive piece of … udon?
We weren't really sure what to call it, but they call it an udon noodle, so it must be some kind of udon.
Taking a look at what is inside, there's the big ol' piece of udon, shredded spring onion, and an onsen tamago (温泉たまご), A.K.A. a Japanese soft boiled egg. At first we thought there might be something coating the outside of the noodle, since the color and texture looked so different from what we expect to see as udon. But no, that's just what happens when you cook a giant noodle in broth, apparently.
The broth seems quite dark, but the flavor isn't overly strong, and the noodle's texture… is kind of like mochi【餅】 rice cake, actually. If you venture over to Gotetsu to try your own bowl, we recommend you try it as it is first, then break the egg yolk and taste the difference. It makes the dish more rich and creamy, and milds down the flavor a bit.. mmm. Then, mix in the spring onion to add a spicy bite!
Enjoy the changes in the flavors!
So, what’s it all about with this udon?
For those who are curious about why Gotetsu (ostensibly a shamo chicken restaurant) made this one-of-a-kind udon, we have to go back to the original theme of the parking area.
Remember how this venue, called the "Onihei Edo Dokoro", is a reproduction of the fictional Edo town seen in Shotaro Ikenami's popular novel? And you know how Gotetsu is a restaurant in that town? Well, that fictional restaurant's specialty is the mysterious "ippon udon." So, even though this dish has a questionable history of actually existing (some say it was real, some say there's little evidence), the owners of Gotetsu thought it was important to develop their own ippon udon, and give visitors that authentic Gotetsu experience. It literally took them three years of development to get to a dish they believed customers would enjoy.
So that's why everyone is making a fuss about this udon! Not only does it look… amazing? But the restaurant worked hard to bring visitors an authentic experience.
So next time you travel towards Saitama, don't forget to stop by at this unique parking area to try the udon from the past!
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