Pasta and noodles

Perhaps my favourite category of food, if it can be considered a single category, is noodles and pasta. I love carbs in all forms but noodles are just extra special-- there's something comforting about them, yet the endless ways they can be cooked makes them exciting. I could eat noodles or pasta every day for the rest of my life but with the amazing variety of both the noodles themselves and the sauces (or soups, or toppings) that accompany them, I'd never ever get bored.

Recently I have indeed been eating noodles or pasta every day, or at least almost every day. Mostly it's stuff I've blogged before (like tomato-based sauces or simple spaghetti with eggs) so I don't bother taking a picture, but here are a few I thought I'd share:

This is kamo-nanban soba (soba noodles with duck and long onions), one of my favourite soba dishes. I often order it at soba restaurants but have never made it before as duck can be hard to find and tends to be pricey. But when I saw a single duck breast on sale recently I knew it was time to make my first attempt.

The broth turned out perfectly, with a rich ducky flavour and thick slippery texture. The duck itself was less successful: although I'd sliced the breast thinly, the pieces were rather tough, so I postponed the meal until the next evening. But the long simmer and overnight sit in the fridge that usually manages to tenderize the toughest cut of meat failed to help the duck-- it went from hard and chewy to slightly less hard and stringy-- and almost flavourless to boot. But the broth, having absorbed all of the duck's flavour, was fantastic so I can't complain too much.

I was afraid something like this would happen, as when I was checking out recipes online I noticed that they all called for ai-gamo (which I believe is a kind of hybrid duck), but what I had bought was hon-gamo (true duck). So next time I'll try it with ai-gamo and see if I can't get both tasty broth and tasty duck.

A bit about the name "kamo nanban soba": kamo (or gamo when used in a compound word) means "duck", and nanban means "southern barbarian". I assumed the dish is so named because visiting barbarians (the name nanban was used for foreign traders of entering Japan from the south, especially Southeast Asians and Europeans) introduced the practice of eating duck to the Japanese, to whom meat was officially forbidden until relatively recently. But while searching for a recipe online I discovered one site that claims that negi (long onions) were called "nanba" or "nanban" in the Edo era, and a dish called nanban soba, consisting of negi and soba in hot broth, was popular.

It sounds a bit dubious, since the word "nanban" is already used to name a few dishes originally introduced or inspired by foreigners (like the escovitch-derived nanban-zuke). But then again, the two other "nanban" soba dishes, tori-nanban soba (soba with chicken) and kare-nanban soba (soba with curry broth) are chock-full of negi. So who knows. I'm probably the only one intrigued by food etymology mysteries like this anyway.

Next up is fusilli with asari clams. I believe the classic pastas for vongole sauce are linguine and spaghetti, but somehow I love it with fusilli (heck, I love any sauce with fusilli).

Clams are in season now, and while I love them enough to never tire of them, it's nice to occasionally have a break from my two favourite ways to eat them (which are the pasta above, and steamed with sake). So here is asari udon (udon noodles with asari clams). It is really just udon noodles topped with my regular steamed clams (the clams are steamed in sake, then splashed with soy sauce, a small pat of butter and finely chopped negi) with just a little more liquid than usual. But a small change makes a completely new dish, and now my clam repertoire has expanded.

Comments

[kat]

I love noodles and pasta too! I am envious that you can find duck :)

[Tess]

I could eat noodles and pasta everyday too!

I made Kamonanban Soba and posted about it (not the recipe) on my blog, 2 January 08. I'm thinking that you might have over-cooked the duck. I have a second recipe by Shizuo Tsui for "Kamo Nanba." In both recipes, the duck is sliced and cooked for a very short time, first in a skillet, then in kakejiru. One recipe uses shichimi togarashi for a condiment, and the other uses sansho pepper.

There are 4 recipes using duck breast in my project book, and it's never cooked for more than a total of 30 minutes.

About the "nanban" there might be another possibility: There is a reference in one of my books to escbeche. The dressing is called nanban vinegar and includes dried red pepper and long onions. Also, a recipe for Tori Namban-zuke, and one for Salmon in a Sweet Vinegar marinade. Could it be related to the seasoning of hot pepper as the foreign influence? oh, never mind, Here is what Ms. Shimbo notes, "Dishes prepared in namban style typically call for red chile pepper and the combined techniques of deep-frying and marinating."

[fumipuriri]

i love clams too!
i stmbled across your blog and its interesting to see tokyo from your perspective! great pictures too :)

[A scientist in the kitchen]

Just want to let you know how much I enjoy your posts. I love ramen, eating ramen is probably one of my best memories on my first visit in Japan.

Gay