Making Buckwheat Noodles | Interpreter and tour guide of Yamagata

Yamagata Prefecture is famous for buckwheat noodles. Yamagata is in a cold area with a wide range of temperatures during the day. Such climate is suitable for buckwheat. It has been cultivated in the area since old days as a staple food that substitutes for rice. People have been serving buckwheat noodles to treat guests.

There are many good buckwheat noodle restaurants in Yamagata. Oishida Town is especially famous for the noodles.

The population of Oishida Town is decreasing; the number of buckwheat noodle restaurants is increasing. This fact shows that buckwheat noodles of Oishida is very good. I went to Oishida Town and made buckwheat noodles from flour.

There are many recipes to make buckwheat noodles. The unique way of Oishida Town is using hot water to make 100% buckwheat noodles. Some people may think that hot water would kill the flavor of buckwheat but good chefs make good noodles using hot water.

Chopsticks are used to mix the hot water and fine powder.

Cold water is then added, and the dough is mixed and kneaded.

The dough is made into a flat and round shape.

The dough is rolled out and folded.

A special knife is used to cut the dough.

The dough is cut into noodles.

Unfortunately, my skill is not enough to make consistently the same size and width noodles.