Today for lunch I had some nice soup made with soba noodles.

In the picture above you see the display model for the soup. It is very common in Japan to see models of the food displayed in front of a restaurant. The items in the bowl here are all made of plastic or resin.

The food looks very lifelike. There are some restaurants who will display actual food, but it is much more likely you will see the models.

Here is my actual lunch. The soba noodle soup is accompanied by a side of tempura. Does the actual dish look like the model? Not exactly, but you definitely get an idea of what you are ordering.

Now back to the tile of the post. Slurping Soba. In Japan it is traditional to slurp up your noodles while you eat soba or other noodle dishes. The slurping of the noodles helps cool them so you don’t burn your mouth.

Have you ever been in a Japanese noodle shop? Believe me it can be noisy. My students were noisy slurpers at lunch today. I tried to keep up, but I definitely didn’t have a good slurping technique.

Here is a closer look at the tempura side dish. There was a shrimp, a piece of eggplant and some squash. I really liked the texture and taste of the tempura.

Here is a closer look at the soup. You can see the thin soba noodles in the soup. The soba noodles are made with buckwheat flour. The noodles are high in thiamine so are a good preventative against beriberi.

Do you slurp your noodles?

Steven