so this place which I’ve stumbled across in Ebisu while looking for a soba place, is the BEST soba place I’ve ever came across in Japan so far. I was actually around the area looking for the Ebisu illumination but decided to settle for soba instead since it’s a tradition in Japan to eat soba the night before new years (the Japanese NY is on 1.1) and it is said that you should not bite your soba as you eat and gobble it down as a whole until it is all in your mouth and then chew. all that just to live a longer life. well, no harm believing in it right? except I forgot and accidentally bit it off my first bite =X. but I followed the “rules” after that.
soba’s always been my favourite Japanese dish since I was young. although now it’s sushi, I still love soba. but to my surprise, soba in Japan does not taste quite like the soba’s I’ve had in Malaysia and Korea where it was always a little more jelly-like. instead, these buckwheat noodles called soba, are not as smooth and has a stronger buckwheat taste to it in Japan. I wasn’t very used to it the first few times but I came to enjoy it more than the ones I’ve had which I now label, the unoriginal soba.
I actually read about this place and it has a soaring high 3.52 in tabelog and there were comments on how people waited for this and thought it was totally worth the wait. except because I had it first on NYE I had to queue for 2 hours in the painfully cold weather. and still thought it was very worth it! they even provided us hot tea, beer (yes, BEER!) and hot packs while we were waiting in line outside! Continue reading “[Tokyo: Ebisu] Itasobakaoriya 板蕎麦 香り家”
