About Yabu Soba
We visited the long-established (61 years ago) and famous soba restaurant “Kirishita Soba Yabu” known locally as Yabu Soba in Myoko Kogen. As the name suggests, they use “Kirishita buckwheat flour” for all their soba. The name literally means under the fog which refers to the conditions the soba is grown under, giving it it’s amazing taste. All the soba, udon and noodles are homemade. This means they are always adjusting the menus according to the distinct seasons of the Myoko area.
To experience the true taste of their buckwheat soba, I decided to order “Mori soba”. It’s a simple and plain dish that lets the taste of the noodle shine. The aroma of “Kirishita soba”, the smooth texture of the noodles and the perfect balance with the specialty soba soup makes this a perfect soba dish. The soup is a little salty but the flavour of bonito flakes and the mellow soy sauce that complements the soup is perfect with the flavourful soba.
You can add the healthy soba water to the remaining soup to make a delicious and healthy drink after you have finished eating the soba.
We also tried crispy wild vegetable tempura with various kinds of salt such as sea salt and wasabi salt. The fresh wild vegetables collected here are really delicious and reflect what is currently available locally during this season. This tempura was extremely crispy and felt as if you were eating a snack such as chips. Its very moreish and you could easily eat a lot of this.
The third dish I tried was “Chuka Ramen”.
It was my first time to eat “Chuka Ramen” at a soba restaurant, and I was very interested in it.
These ramen noodles are also homemade and are a straight thick noodle. Like the soba noodles they are amazingly delicious! Moreover, the soup is extremely gentle and doesn’t overpower the dish and the simple toppings exist without disturbing the noodles and soup.
It was really refreshing and delicious!
Since there are many other items on the menu, I was really wondering what to choose. Next time, I would like to have the “fried pork cutlet set”, a specialty of Niigata. Many foreign visitors come to Yabu Soba in the winter months and they have a special menu prepared for these guests. Particularly the “Yam soba” seems to be very popular! The combination of tempura and ramen seems to be the most popular combination of dishes for a lot of the foreign visitors to Yabu Soba. Gyoza (Chinese dumplings) and Edamame (boiled soybeans) are also very popular too.
Overall the dishes we tried were very satisfying and delicious, but maybe I think that the best thing about the food was the warm hospitality. When you are in Myoko make sure to come and try this delicious soba restaurant in Myoko.
