Maruchan Chilled Bukkake Udon and Tanuki Soba Noodles
On June 8, 2020, in Japan, Maruchan began to sell their newly released instant soba and udon noodles that are meant to be served chilled with cold water.
Actually, the instant soba noodle was first introduced last year as a limited-time offer during the summer season, and this year the instant udon version was added to the line-up.
Maruchan Hiyashi Bukkake Udon and Hiyashi Bukkake Tanuki Soba Instant Noodles
What I introduce here this time is the cup noodles pictured above “Hiyashi Bukkake Udon (冷しぶっかけうどん)” and “Hiyashi Bukkake Tanuki Soba (冷しぶっかけたぬきそば)” from Maruchan.
In the names, “Hiyashi (冷し)” means “chilled” in Japanese, while “Bukkake (ぶっかけ)” refers to a soba/udon dish where boiled noodles are chilled with cold water onto which some thick soy sauce dashi-rich broth (sauce) is poured.
Although the word “Tanuki (たぬき)” has the literal meaning of “raccoon dog”, in the names of “Tanuki Udon (たぬきうどん)” and “Tanuki Soba (たぬきそば)”, Tanuki means that the dishes have Tenkasu tempura bits as their main topping.
Contents
Each of these Maruchan’s udon and soba bowls comes with a soup base packet and a garnish packet.
Specifically, the dried garnish for the Hiyashi Bukkake Tanuki Soba consists of onion tempura bits, shrimp tempura bits, and Kamaboko fish cake slices.
On the other hand, the Hiyashi Bukkake Udon noodle is garnished with sesame seeds, Kamaboko slices, and chopped green onions.
Cooking
The cooking method of these noodles is almost the same as that of instant yakisoba; First, peel back the lid about halfway, take all the packets out from the container, and pour boiling water until it reaches the line indicated inside.
Then, close the lid, and wait until the must-wait time passes (udon: 5 minutes, soba: 4 minutes).
After that, peel off the small seal on the corner of the top lid, and drain the water inside completely through the tiny holes.
Then, fill the bowl with cold water to chill the noodles and drain the water again, three times in a row.
After removing the top lid, pour in the soup base liquid and give it all a good stir with chopsticks to coat the noodles with the sauce.
As a finishing process, put in the garnishes, and they are ready to eat!
Taste
The buckwheat noodles in the Hiyashi Bukkake Tanuki Soba bowl are of usual Maruchan quality; soft, chewy, smooth in texture with a subtle buckwheat aroma to them.
The soy sauce-based sauce for this is mild and rich in taste with umami ingredients from bonito, kombu (seaweed), and shiitake (mushroom).
Meanwhile, these udon noodles also have a smooth and soft texture and are very easy to eat as usual. This soy sauce-based sauce has umami from bonito and kombu, and as a secret ingredient, ginger is used.
Incidentally, this udon sauce is more intense in the taste of soy sauce than the soba sauce above, probably because the wheat udon noodle itself is less aromatic than the buckwheat soba noodle.
