We Japanese have a custom of eating soba at the end of year. It is called “Toshikoshi-soba”. I always eat toshikoshi soba at home, but this year, I had it at soba restaurant Kochian (虎智庵) in Funabashi area. They might be the most popular soba restaurant in Funabashi now.
Many soba restaurants have long line on December 31. So, we got to there 45 minutes before the opening time. We were first comers. After about 5 minutes later, second group came. And there’re not much people gathered when their opening time. Well, we didn’t need to come such a earlier time :p
They prepared year-end menu only. There was were only 4 soba on the menu. Soba restaurants are too busy on December 31. So, they don’t serve much foods. It can’t be helped. But I wanted to eat warm soba. All soba was cold. Now is cold winter !
Seiro (Cold soba)
Seiro with Oroshi (Cold soba with grated daikon radish)
Seiro with Vegetable tempura
Seiro with tempura
*Seiro means soba without soup on bamboo sieve. Bamboo sieve for soba itself is called “Seiro”. So “Seiro soba” is correct name.
I wanted to eat tempura, so I ordered a Seiro with tempura (天せいろ, 2000 yen). We waited over watching such a cute ornaments and chef’s finger works.
At first, our tempura was served. Two shrimps tempura, purple sweet potato and purple carrot.
This was the first time to see and eat purple carrot. I like this bitterness very much. Everything was crisp. After that our seiro was served. This soba came from Iiyama (飯山) in Nagano.
The amount of soba wasn’t much.
There was a paper written about the ways of eating the soba on the table.
1.At first, eat without anything
2.With salt
3.With soba soup
The paper also said there is no condiments like green onion and wasabi because the chef want guests tasting his soba clearly.
After eating soba, sobayu was served. Sobayu is basically, broth left over after boiling soba. But recently many restaurants don’t use left over broth. They boil soba powder and water for sobayu. Also this restaurant, too. So, we can enjoy such a thick texture of sobayu.
It was my pleasure that many people read my posts this year. I’m looking forward to you visiting my blog next year, too ! Greeting from last 2013 !
About
Name Kochian (虎智庵)
Open Lunch, Dinner
Reservation Available for dinner time only
Credit card Unavailable
URL Website
Google Map (Current location)
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