Soba noodles are noodles made from buckwheat (or buckwheat and wheat) and water. They are thin, usually softer and darker in colour than other noodles, and most resemble spaghetti in shape. Yet soba noodles are not just any noodles.

For many people soba noodles are still not a daily food, although they have been around for hundreds of years. Initially, they were only eaten in China and later in Japan. In Japan, the noodles underwent a great development and became enormously popular. When worldwide culinary boundaries faded, we also got to know them in the rest of the world.

Buckwheat (in Japan they say soba) is an herbaceous plant that looks a bit like grain, but is not a grain. From the seeds of the plant, buckwheat flour is made.

In the 14th century, Japanese Buddhist monks ate a lot of buckwheat flour with water. They turned it into a ball to make it easier to eat. This went on for centuries, until the demand for buckwheat flour increased and a local baker decided to make thin strips of buckwheat. When these thin strips were also ordered by the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, they became popular as soba noodles.

In Japan, they eat soba noodles in soup, but they also like them cold. Traditional 'seiro' is a dish of cold noodles with wasabi, shallots and a sauce of dashi broth and soy for dipping. The noodles are then slurped, preferably emphatically, into the mouth. Slurping ensures that the noodles and the dip sauce mix well, which - as the Japanese know - is better for the taste.

You can eat your soba noodles, which have a slightly nutty flavour, cold (as a basis for a salad for example), but they are also delicious in soup or in a stir-fry.