In the land of the Iron Chef
February 13, 2008
MARK SCHATZKER
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
February 9, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST
The Globe and Mail
TOKYO —
Not a single grain of wheat flour goes into the noodles at the Tokyo soba shrine — I mean restaurant — called Kikouchitei. The noodles are hand-cut from freshly rolled dough containing buckwheat and only buckwheat.
If that doesn’t strike you as unusual, then there’s something you should know about buckwheat dough: It is the world’s most temperamental substance. Without the glutinous binding properties of wheat, the dough becomes so prone to shredding that learning how to make it takes a staggering three years of training — after which one attains the status of “soba master.”
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