Photo: Koltonsmith · CC BY-SA 4.0
Morioka Jajamen (Flat Noodles with Meat Miso, Finished as Egg Soup)
Noodles from Morioka in Iwate: flat noodles like flat udon under meat miso, cucumber and spring onion, seasoned at the table with chilli oil, ginger, garlic and vinegar. When the noodles are gone, an egg is cracked into the bowl and the noodle cooking water poured in to make a soup called chītantan.
Ingredients
- fresh flat noodles (hira-udon or kishimen) · for 4600 g
- Meat miso
- minced pork250 g
- dried shiitake · soaked and finely chopped3
- white of a leek or thick spring onion · finely chopped1
- ginger · chopped1 thumb
- garlic · chopped2 cloves
- dark miso (aka-miso)100 g
- sugar2 tbsp
- sesame oil1 tbsp
- toasted sesame seeds2 tbsp
- water · or the shiitake soaking water100 ml
- To serve
- cucumber · cut in matchsticks1
- spring onions · sliced3
- grated ginger, grated garlic, chilli oil, vinegar · on the table
- Chītantan
- eggs · one each4
Steps
- ⏲ 5 min
Fry the pork in the sesame oil until it changes colour, then add the shiitake, leek, ginger and garlic and fry until fragrant.
- ⏲ 15 min
Add the miso, sugar and water and cook over low heat, stirring, until thick. Stir in the sesame seeds.
- ⏲ 8 min
Boil the noodles in plenty of water just before eating. Keep the cooking water hot in the pot; do not pour it away.
Drain the noodles and put them on plates. Top each with a ladle of meat miso, cucumber and spring onion.
At the table, add chilli oil, grated ginger, garlic and vinegar to taste and mix well.
When the noodles are gone, crack an egg onto the plate and beat it into what is left of the miso. Add a little more meat miso, pour in hot noodle water and stir: that is chītantan.
Variations
- Chītantan on its own terms. In shops you hand back the empty plate, and they crack the egg in and pour the water for you.
- Extra meat miso. Plenty of people ask for more.
- With kishimen. If flat udon is hard to find, use flat kishimen noodles.
Tips
- Keep the noodle water. It becomes the chītantan.
- Boil fresh noodles just before eating. Shops boil them after the order is taken.
- Season at the table. Chilli oil, ginger, garlic and vinegar go in to each person's taste.
- Make the meat miso thick. It should sit on the noodles without running.
- Beat the egg on the plate first. Mix it with the leftover miso, then pour on the hot water.
More detail and the reasons why (2)
- A plate finished twice. According to Japanese Wikipedia, once the noodles are gone an egg is cracked into the bowl, meat miso is added and the noodle cooking water poured in and stirred, and that soup is called 鶏蛋湯, chītantan. The diner finishes the noodles once at the table with chilli oil, ginger, garlic and vinegar, and then finishes the plate again by turning what is left into soup. Because the noodles are boiled raw after the order, it also takes longer than a standing soba bar.
- Another descendant of zhajiangmian. The first owner of Pairon, who had lived in Manchuria, is said to have opened a stall in post-war Morioka based on the zhajiangmian he had eaten there, and to have adjusted it to Morioka tastes until it took its present form. From the same root Korea made jjajangmyeon, frying chunjang in oil; Morioka made a meat miso and laid it on flat noodles.
The basics behind this dish
- Dough and Gluten: When to Build It and When to Avoid ItThe same flour and water becomes a dumpling wrapper or a tender pancake. The difference is whether you built gluten or avoided it — and kneading and resting do different jobs.
- Why Sauces Split: Emulsions and Pan SaucesA cream sauce breaking and a carbonara scrambling are the same failure. Temperature and emulsifiers — plus how to bring a split sauce back.
- Knife Skills: Grip, Cuts, and Why Size MattersHow you hold the knife matters more than how fast you cut. The pinch grip, the claw hand, and why uniform size is a cooking decision rather than a cosmetic one.
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