



To be brutally honest, I usually don't go in for soba noodles. I often find them to be bland, in that sense of, Well, I need to eat otherwise I'll wilt way, so this will have to do. The noodles pictured above however, have given me faith that soba do have something to offer my unsophisticated taste buds.





The noodles came in a '天丼 (tendon) set'. Tendon being tempura on rice, as in the picture below.









The rice here is really sticky and sweet making it much more palatable for people like me; from the West, but feeding on defrosted lumps of pre-cooked rice pretty much daily, to the point where eating them has taken on all the excitement of work.













The whole set (above) comes in at 1,030 yen at a place where me and the work mates occasionally go for lunch (in Tokyo). I'd write the name of the restaurant here if I was actually able to read it myself! I've got to the point now where I feel like it's too late to ask!





Anyway, the soba noodles (with soup) are perfect compliment to the heavier (and stodgier) tendon.





The point here being that, for the longest time soba noodles did nothing for me, they were just something I ate at New Year to placate Japanese hosts. I could speak similarly for daifuku, those mochi balls filled with red-bean paste. They were pretty much abhorrent in my early Japan days. I've since acquired a taste for them that I never though possible.





To this effect I was wondering what Japanese foods any else here has come to have gained a taste for?