Tokyo Style, Kansai Style
My friend, Isao, is fussy when it comes to how well or how strongly food is seasoned with salt. My mother attributes this to his Kansai upbringing, where salt–not miso–is the basis for flavor. Certainly Japan is full of microcosms. Each region has its own special way of preparing even something as basic as miso-shiru. It’s not surprising, therefore, that even specially packaged instant noodles are regional as well.
Here are some photos of instant noodles seasoned “Kansai style,” which is to say they are flavored more with salt than with soy sauce. I snapped these after my cousin had returned home to Tokyo with bags of the noodles in tow. She married a Kyoto man, you see, and he can’t stand the noodles for sale in the eastern capital.
Amazing what married life demands . . .
The battle about taste between Kansai(western Japan) and Kanto(Tokyo area) is well known among Japanese. Kansai people say that they were surprised when they saw the Udon noodle’s soup with soy sauce flavour in Kanto for the first time, because it had dark colour and was much saltier than that in Kansai.
Kansai people insist it’s not about salt, but about Dashi(soup stock made from tangle and dried bonito). They think Dashi in Kansai has fine delicate taste, while soy sauce flavoured one in Kanto is just salty. Generally, miso soup in Kanto is also saltier than that in Kansai.
Moreover if you compare Tohoku(northern Japan) with Kanto, miso soup in Tohoku is even saltier than that in Kanto. Therefore when the couple from Kansai and Tohoku has the argument about miso soup, it wouldn’t stop. I grew up with more Kansai style taste, so I understand the complaint by Kansai people.
August 21st, 2007 at 6:16 pm[...] Japundit.com had an interesting little article on the regional variances in common foods. I always remember how Yuko and her parents loved going shopping for the most mundane things (like instant Ramen packs, or various sauces) whenever we visited relatives down in Yamaguchi. It was just that we could never get that flavoured food back in Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa areas of Japan. [...]
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:20 pm