お蕎麦は好物ですが知識も味もさほど頓着せずに食べていました。そんな私が手打ち十割蕎麦をいただいたのです。これまで店で十割蕎麦を注文してもいつも売り切れだったので、今回のK.Tさんの嬉しい贈り物に思わずニッコリ。
Tさんは蕎麦打ち歴が長く指導を受けて蕎麦屋になった人もいるほどです。いただいた時に蕎麦粉の名前も教えて下さったのですが忘れてしまい情けない限りです。茹で時間や手順などを書いた紙も一緒にくださり、早速、夕食に蕎麦粉１００％の手打ち蕎麦を茹でてみることに。
麺の太さも揃って赤ちゃんを寝かせるようにきれいにケースに入っていました。小麦粉がたくさん入ったスーパーの乾麺とは違うので取り扱いには特に気をつけて優しく注意深く指示通りに茹で上げました。蕎麦の香り、味、歯応え、すべて申し分なく、これほど丁寧にお蕎麦を頂いたのは初めてです。もちろん、茹で汁の蕎麦湯も甘くて美味しく最高でした！
I like Soba (Japanese buckwheat noodle) very much but as a matter of fact, I have been eating soba without much knowledge of soba and consciousness about the taste. I, who is of such elastic nature, received handmade soba which was made from only buckwheat flour. In the past, I sometimes ordered 100% buckwheat soba in the noodle shop, but I had to choose another soba which was mixed with flour because 100% soba was sold out, so I was very happy with Mr. K.T's gift.
Mr. T has been making handmade soba for years and he also has been teaching making soba. Among the students, several people became professional soba makers and opened soba-ya (noodle shop). He told me the kind of buckwheat flour when I received it although I already forgot, but I tried to boil the soba following the instructions which he handed to me with the soba noodle.
The noodles were placed neatly in the case. Since these handmade 100% soba noodles are very delicate compared to dry soba which I usually buy at a supermarket and contain lots of flour, I treated them carefully when I put them into boiled water and made them cool in the cold water followed by the instructions. Well, I have never tasted soba in such a careful manner before. I appreciated soba's subtle smell, taste and texture. The soba water which was left in the pot after boiling, was also very good!
