MediaIndonesia.com – At an authentic Japanese restaurant located in the same building as the Japan Foundation, the expatriate lunch atmosphere there was very solemn. When sushi or a bowl of udon arrives in front of them, chopsticks don’t necessarily work. For a moment they seemed to be inhaling the aroma of the dish, enjoying the way the dish was carefully arranged combining various colors. Only then, enjoyed wholeheartedly, in an organized focus.
During lunch with the country manager of a printing press brand from Japan, the expatriate who claimed to also like satay padang did not hesitate to make a sluuurp sound when eating the noodles in front of him. He said that slurping is an attempt to enjoy the aroma of the noodles and the soup, which can be smelled strongly when slurped. Japan Live Pagealso mentioned, the habit of slurping has been known since 400 years since the tradition of processing noodles was discovered and popular in Japan, which consists of soba, udon, and ramen. In addition, slurping can also prevent burning on the tongue when the noodles are still hot, air enters the mouth, so that the temperature decreases. While the tradition of various noodles, including udon, soba and ramen, was invented, the western tradition of eating utensils, namely spoons and forks, had not yet entered Japan.
Slurping is more for personal enjoyment, so there are no special rules regarding technique, including the sound it makes, but what is certain is that this custom only applies to authentic Japanese noodle products, so it doesn’t apply when eating spaghetti. However, now the volume of sluuurp sounds tends to decrease, as Japanese people adapt to intercultural eating rules.
Another adaptation of eating traditions in Japan, adapted to the rhythm of the people who are busy but still want to enjoy good food. This condition stimulates, the variety of frozen foods in Japan is very diverse, including high quality. Almost all delicious food that is usually sold in restaurants, can be purchased at supermarkets and even convenient stores in Japan, so eating at home becomes an entertaining activity because the quality of the food is comparable to the restaurant, both in taste, appearance and nutritional content, which is low in fat, nutritious, and free of bacteria. .
Cimory and Kanematsu, a Japanese company, Kanemory Food Service collaborated to establish a factory in Serang, Banten to produce various frozen foods made from beef, chicken and fish, one of which is a variety of flavors of udon noodles that can be cooked like instant noodles. The difference is, the noodle packaging is taken from the refrigerator because it contains real meat. The variations consist of Niku Udon with sliced beef, Curry Udon with Japanese curry flavor with chicken pieces, and Spicy Udon with spicy miso sauce. All of them are halal-certified and can be purchased at Japanese-flavored supermarkets, Aeon Mall from IDR 35 thousand, sluuurp! (*/X-6)