Photo/Illutration “Sosu”-flavored fried noodles in the Okameya style (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

Editor’s note: In the Taste of Life series, cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.

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Kosei Ueno grew up in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, a city known for its gyoza dumplings.

However, people there also love fried noodles and Ueno’s parents ran a fried noodle shop called Okameya.

His father quit his job as a newspaper journalist to take over the shop that Ueno’s grandfather had opened.

Homemade thick, fresh noodles were steamed in a wooden tub.

“When I was small, it was steamed on a wood-fired cauldron. I used to help by adding the firewood and laying the noodles in the tub,” says Ueno.

A local sauce maker created the sauce. The broth poured on the noodles when they were fried was made at the shop using chicken bones.

The only ingredients that went in were squid and cabbage. The noodles were wrapped in thinly shaved wood into a triangular shape and sold as takeout food.

The noodles were often sold out by midday just through pre-orders. When he came home from school, Ueno would snack on fried noodles as well. He never grew tired of them.

When the day’s work was done, his father would step out in the late afternoon and head to a nearby sushi restaurant. When Ueno went to get him for dinner, his father would be drinking at the counter.

Ueno recalls how happy he felt when he sat next to his father, who let him taste the minced fresh horse mackerel and squid legs that accompanied the drinks.

Though Okameya closed in 2010, one of the regular customers learned the manufacturing and cooking processes of the noodles and opened a new shop that offers the familiar flavor.

The fried noodles Ueno makes come in a variety of flavors, such as salt and green onion, curry or coriander and lemon. For this week’s recipe, however, he was asked to introduce the memorable flavor.

“It was the first time for me to re-create it, but it went quite well,” he said.

The Japanese-style Worcester sauce, often simply called “sosu,” is added in two parts. The first portion gives the flavor to the noodles. The second enhances the aroma.

Since the sosu tastes different depending on the product, adjust the amount by checking the flavor.

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Kosei Ueno (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

Kosei Ueno: Born in Tochigi Prefecture in 1962, Ueno is the chief editor of the gourmet magazine dancyu. After graduating from college, he worked as a newspaper reporter and an editor of an economic magazine before joining the publishing company President Inc., where he became an editor of dancyu. Ueno has been serving as the chief editor since 2017. He is acknowledged as a “kuishinbo,” or foodie. He appears on TV in “Nihonichi futsude oishii Ueno shokudo” (Japan’s most ordinary and tasty Ueno diner) aired on BS Fuji channel.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

Main Ingredients (Serves 4)

600 grams steamed noodles (mushimen) for fried noodles (yakisoba), 1 small squid, 1/8 cabbage, 50 grams lard, 2 grams Chinese soup stock powder, 100 ml hot water, 100 grams Worcester sauce

  1. Remove guts from squid and separate the body and legs. Boil them in salted water and cut into pieces about 5 mm thick. Remove core from cabbage and cut into bite-size pieces. Dissolve soup stock in hot water.
  2. Place frying pan on heat, add lard and melt.
  3. Add squid and steamed noodles, pour broth and loosen noodles. Place cabbage on top, put lid on and cook on medium heat.
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    Top with cabbage and place the lid on. (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)
  4. When cabbage has softened, remove lid, mix and add sauce in two parts in a circular motion. Stir-fry until a slightly toasty aroma rises.
    20230807-noodle-1-L
    Pour the sauce in a circular motion in two parts. (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

About 475 kcal and 3.1 grams salt per portion
(Nutrient calculation by the Nutrition Clinic of Kagawa Nutrition University)

SHORT MEMOS

Ideally, the noodles should turn out thick. Since store-bought noodles are often coated in oil, they are easier to handle when the oil is removed by quickly pouring hot water on them before cooking.

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Jinsei Reshipi (Life Recipe) column

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