24 April, 2007

getting another bowl of soba noodle

As I said in the weblog put below, one of "big three" noodles known by people in Morioka city was ja-ja men ("men" in Japanese means just a "noodle", not a male, anyway). So, the other two were a small bowl of "soba" noodle called "wanko soba" ("soba" is a Japanese noodle, and "wanko" is a kind of dialect in Morioka city, and people in Tokyo ususally say "wan", which means a small bowl.), and "rei-men" that originally came from a Korean dish, "Naengmyeon" (cold noodle), but was arranged for Morioka's taste.
Anyway, in this my first walking in Morioka city, besides ja-ja men, I didn't have the other two. But on the other day, I got wanko-soba at one of the most famous soba-restaurants in Morioka city. This was, maybe, a pretty interesting story for people who never try to have wanko-soba in a restaurant, 'cause I didn't know that there was a certain manner or rule or style to have it, until entering in the restaurant.
In the restaurant, after ordering a traditional "wanko-soba" style meal for my lunch, I was just curious about the elder waitress who gave me an empty small bowl and kept being beside me. She looked just ready to serve a small chunk of boiled soba noodle.
Then, she said to me, " are you ready?"
I don't know exactly what she meant, but said just "yeah".
She began to put a small chunk of soba into my bowl, and rushed me to empty the bowl. As I was said, I ate it pretty soon and completly made my bowl empty. As soon as I made it empty, she put another small chunk of soba, then I was rushed again to empty my bowl as soon as possible. This endless flow was continued until I said to her that I just enjoyed my wank-soba at my own pace. In short, I said "don't do that, any more, please".
Later, she explained that rushing to eat was one of wanko-soba styles, and many young guys would try and like this style, 'cause they could have small chunk sobas as many as possible at a same price.
For me, I just forgot the tast of wanko-soba at that restaurant.
Here was Morioka city, Japan

No comments: