In our recent visit to Hakone, we found a tiny restaurant named Kandachiya Soba that offers soba, buckwheat noodle.
The restaurant was a full house when we arrived. Its narrow place can only fit about 10 people. It only took us less than five minutes to get a table. These days people don’t spend a lot of time in a restaurant which shortens the queueing time.
Kandachiya’s menu quite varies. One of the most popular dishes is its egg custard but we were more interested in the soba. Kandachiya makes their own soba. It is said handmade soba is the best kind because it always tastes fresh.
Soba is served either hot or cold. Hot soba is usually served in a bowl of soup, whereas cold one is eaten with a soy-based dipping sauce or tsuyu. Kandachiya has both kinds of soba. Because it was a hot day, we chose cold soba. The menu we chose included rice that is wrapped in a bamboo leaf.
It didn’t take long for the food to land on our table. The presentation was marvelous, so instagrammable.
The soba was arranged on top of the stone-like plate. A tiny bowl of soy sauce was placed next to the soba. How to eat soba: just dip it into the sauce, then eat,,, simple food is eaten in a simple way. I loved the soba taste. It’s fresh and soft. It’s been a while since the last time I ate soba this good.
The picture below is a plate of ‘konnyaku’ or devil’s tongue or voodoo lily. It’s a typical side dish in traditional Japanese meal. ‘Konnyaku’s taste is unique, it’s chewy and flavourless. Like this one, it was served without any sauce. I usually dip this ‘konnyaku’ in soy sauce to add a little bit of flavour.
The rice, wrapped in a bamboo leaf, was placed on a tiny wooden basket. There are two types of rice in this menu: with chicken and corn. I chose rice with corn, hubby opted for chicken. There wasn’t a huge difference between the two other than the filling. The rice was tasty as it’s cooked with ‘dashi’ or stock.
By the time we finished the meal, there wasn’t any room left for dessert. So, we halfheartedly skipped the egg custard. Perhaps next time, if we ever visit Hakone again.
