”Somen” Noodles Not as Easy as Meets the Eye ”Miwayamakatsu Seimen”

Made as preserved food

Once you dip the cold ”somen” noodles floating in ice cold water, into the broth and slurp it in, it will instantly relieve you from the sticky hot weather.
This is a familiar scene of a Japanese summer, and the ”somen” noodles are said to derive from the Minowa district of Nara.
During the severe famine of the Nara period, wheat was milled to flour, then kneaded and was strecthed out to create preserved food for the nobles. This was the beginnning of ”somen”, the very first type referred to as ”wheat ropes” and ever since, it has been produced in this district as ”somen”.

Great taste of noodles hand stretched by ”tenobeshi” craftsmen

”Miwayamakatsu Seimen” creates noodles that are very similar to the origiinal ”wheat ropes” with ”yori”, which are twists made by stretching the noodles. The dough is flattened in 150 layers and then made into a round bar. It is twisted and stretched like a rope which creates chewy, al dente noodles. At Miwayamakatsu Seimen, the noodles are go through 15 extra steps of ”yori” than standard noodles. This results in drawing out further sweetness and ”umami”. Their ”somen” is recognized throughout the country, and in 2008, was served to world leaders at the Toyako Summit.
Katsuyama Yamashita, the 6th generation to the Miwayamakatsu Seimen works as one of the ”tenobeshi” craftsman, and also conducts ”Yamashita Katsuyama Tenobe Workshops” and strives to hand this technique down to the next generation. He is known to give his passion and effort to teaching the skills of ”somen-making”. It also may be worth mentioning that Miwayamakatsu Somen is named ”Hitosuji nawa” meaning ”one long rope”.

ACCESS

Miwayamakatsu Seimen Co., Ltd.: 702 Kurosaki Sakurai-shi Nara; URL https://miwa-yamakatsu.jp/english-info