Yakisoba is a cheap, popular Japanese street food, often also cooked in the home, that descends from Chinese chow mein noodles, but with an unusual twist: in 1885, the Hanshin sauce company in Kobe created the first Japanese-style Worcestershire sauce. The founder had studied at Lea & Perrins in England and took the knowledge he gained, added his own creative spin, and launched an industry making what is known in Japan simply as so-su or sauce. This includes yakisoba sauce, tonkatsu sauce, okonomiyaki sauce, takoyaki sauce, and more.
What we know of as yakisoba today — a heap of chewy yellow noodles in a sweet and tangy soy- and fruit-based sauce with cabbage, carrots, sometimes bean sprouts and bits of meat — first appeared in street stalls just after the turn of the 20th century, but it was popularized in the 1930s and 40s through military canteens looking for new, filling foods they could serve soldiers that didn’t offend their regional sensibilities.
Yakisoba-pan was born in the 1950s, at the equivalent of a Japanese diner where bread had become a common yakisoba side dish to sop up the rich, glistening sauce. It takes the chewy savory noodles and tucks them into a milk bun known as koppe-pan that looks deceptively like a hotdog bun. This innovation is now rampant in convenience stores across Japan. I think of it as one of the greatest after-school foods of all time. Noodles and bread together — it really is twice as nice!
We partnered with the City of Kobe for a week-long yakisoba-pan celebration in September 2019. They wanted to highlight their history as the sauce capital of Japan. We each wanted to celebrate food artisans and our love of great food. We worked with our friend Jane Hashimawari of Ippaipdx (whose Japanese home-cooking pop-ups are the best!) to develop a yakisoba-pan recipe using our noodles, yakisoba sauce from one of Kobe’s oldest sauce companies, Oliver Sauce, and koppe buns from Oyatsupan Bakers. We also had friends around Portland sell their version of yakisoba-pan including Giraffe and Uwajimaya. And we’re doing it again this fall, with our friends Kobe International Club PDX. Stay tuned as we determine how to evolve this partnership during COVID, but expect a great new recipe that utilizes our noodles and Kobe sauce. But first, this winner…
Recipe by Jane Hashimawari of Ippaipdx
Makes 10 sandwiches. Have a picnic! These will keep in the fridge tightly wrapped for 2 days.
4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
2 small onions, thinly sliced
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
1-1/2 cups green cabbage, thinly sliced
1 pound Umi Organic yakisoba noodles
4 tablespoons water
Optional: Cooked sliced pork or bacon, hot dogs, or shrimp
1/2 cup Umi Yakisoba Sauce or Oliver Doro Spicy Sauce
6 teaspoons aonori (powdered seaweed), 4 teaspoons + 2 teaspoons separated
2 packs (10 each) Oyatsupan Bakers koppepan (Japanese hot dog buns)
Optional: Kewpie or other mayonnaise to taste
Kizami shoga (pickled ginger matchsticks)
Directions
In a large skillet (preferably non-stick), heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, carefully add the onions, carrots and cabbage. Stir fry until almost tender and any water has fully evaporated, 5 to 10 mins. Remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside.
While pan is still hot, add remaining oil and Umi yakisoba noodles. Then add the water and stir, loosening noodles while they cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add vegetables (and protein if using) back to the pan. Add yakisoba sauce, mix well, and cook over medium-high heat for a few more minutes or until you see a nice “yaki” color on the noodles and vegetables. Remove from heat, add 4 teaspoons of aonori and mix.
To assemble, cut slits into the koppepan and carefully open the bread. To help prevent sogginess, you can mayo the bread on both sides. Divide noodles into the buns (you can fit it!) and top each with a pinch of kizami shoga and a sprinkle of aonori. Itadakimasu!
Photos by Shawn Linehan.
