I didn’t manage to join August’s Instameet because the date clashed with C90 Summer Comiket.
This time, we go with the theme of food! To make it more interesting, we will make our own food! Japanese food!
We went all the way to Yokoze town, in Saitama prefecture; more than an hour train ride away from Tokyo.
The place was like a family farm or something, where families can come and get hands on with a lot of things like fishing, pick mushroom, grab grapes (heh), and make soba.
I’ll update this post sometime in the future when I can think of a better way to describe the place. For now, PICTURES OF SOBA A-HOY!
So we were here. I… I can’t read any of it.
Buckwheat flour, waiting to be mixed with small amount of water
As you mix the flour with water, it slowly clumps…
…into nice, smooth lump of dough.
If done correctly, this is how it supposed to look like. It has texture of a smooth paper.
The next step is to flatten the dough.
Flattening the dough.
Once the dough is thin enough, it’s folded into multiple layers.
Then cut!
Yeap, they look more like soba than dough now.
It might look simple from the photos but there are extra care taken into each stage and process. Without supervision from our guide, we would easily fail at it lol.
So, here’s the final result of the soba, up close; before we cook it of course.
Cooking the soba was pretty simple though. They soaked the soba into hot boiling water for less than a minute (if I remembered correctly, it was sharp 30 seconds), and immediately rinsed in cold water.
Then it’s ready. Yes, pretty simple.
Rinsing the cooked soba in cold water
Soba, ready to be eaten
We then proceed to a vast eating area, where the roof is an actual grape vine. Check out the 360 photo below.
Post from RICOH THETA. – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA
Now, I guess it’s a good time for a confession.
I’m not a fan of soba; I’m with the Udon party. For some weird reason, I get weird headaches every time I eat buckwheat soba; at times, nauseous. Others suspect that I might be allergic to buckwheat.
Still it was pretty fun experience making soba.
Bon Appetit, Others.
So, next, we might be doing light painting at some random beach. Maybe. We’ll see.