Description for "Somen in Kanji"
Thin dried noodles made from wheat flour. The original name was ‘Sakumen,’ but it seems that the character for ‘Saku’ was written with the character ‘Sakumen’ broken, and the erroneous spelling of ‘Somen’ became the name. Although it came from China, it is believed that it was in the Nara period.
There are hand-stretched Somen and machine-made Somen.
The latter is made very thinly using the same manufacturing method as Udon. The hand-stretched Somen manufacturing method is more expensive than the machine manufacturing method because it takes time and effort.
How to eat Somen
Pour a lot of water into a deep pot, add salt when it boils, loosen Somen noodles and put it in, put a lid on it, add a little water when it boils and stir well with chopsticks, and when it boils again, fire it. Stop and rinse with cold water. Chilled somen is common, but the boiled one is called ‘Nyumen’. Mustard, myoga ginger, and green onions are good condiments. There is also a way to eat Chinese cold noodles. Somen is mainly considered a summer food.
