🍜 Sumiso somen (vinegared miso noodles)

Miso, particularly red miso such as the local hatcho miso, is an indispensable condiment in Aichi cuisine. Miso is made by growing koji mold in soybeans to produce a starter, then fermenting and maturing this over a long period of time until it becomes miso paste. It is matured for a minimum of one year, and between two and three years at the longer end. Miso produced in this way has a rich body and acidity, and a characteristically astringent flavor. Hatcho miso is one of these brands of miso. The village from which hatcho miso gets its name (currently the town of Hacho in Okazaki) is close to Okazaki Castle, the birthplace of Tokugawa Ieyasu. This was a major transportation hub, where the Tokaido route between Tokyo and Kyoto intersected with the Yahagi River. As such, it was easy to obtain soybeans and salt there, the raw ingredients of miso. Miso remains deeply rooted in everyday life in Aichi even to this day, appearing in various dishes that are widely known outside the prefecture: “miso stew “and “udon noodles “, “miso oden “, “tonkatsu with miso sauce “, “miso dengaku “, and so on. But the most familiar miso dish eaten in summer is sumiso somen (vinegared miso noodles). Aichi was also lucky when it came to vinegar. Brewers in Handa city were able to produce sake vinegar at an affordable price, and this is said to have helped sushi (sushi referring to vinegared rice, not raw fish) become a part of Edo cuisine. The cities of Hekinan and Anjo, located near to Handa, have eaten somen (thin, wheat flour) noodles since ancient times, and it is thought that “sumiso somen” is deeply rooted in the area too.