Newcastle Friends at 19 North Terrace: 京都 Kyoto ：うどん専門店・岡北 Okakita　udon noodles

On July 10, I went to a job interview in a small ciyt in Shizuoka prefecture where you can enjoy a beautiful landcape of Mt. Fuji. On the way to Fukuoka, I stayed two nights in Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital. I often describe it as "the capital of Japanese tradition and culture". You can observe this aspect in ordinary meals as well.
Today, I introduce "udon", Japanese traditional noodles made from wheat flour. Udon was one of the most popular first food taken by Japanese workers in the old days. You can still find a small restaurant or food stall which serve the noodles anywhere in the country.
The shop I show you here is the best udon shop I found in my life. I could say so because I am not really udon lover. Udon is plain and simple. It is a chewy noodle with a soup made with dried fish stock and soysauce. The soup has a light colour of soysauce. So, you could expect the same flavour wherever you go in Japan.
However, udon at "Okakita (岡北)" is quite unique. As you can see in the picture below, the colour of its soup is different. It is redish brown. When I taste, I was amazed with its rich flavour. It was delicious. The shop select ingredients of top quality and some local specialities.

This "udon" is called "kitsune-udon" and "kitsune" means a fox in Japanese. It has slices of deep-fried tofu and leek. Here they use traditional hand-made tofu and leek of local-specialty called "kujo-negi (九条葱)". According to a legend, a fox liked deep-fried tofu called "atsuage" or "oage" and it was believed to have some magical power. In the ancient time, people were afraid of the animal and they often enshrined and prayed.

Next food I present you is one of "donburi (どんぶり)". It always consists of a large bowl of steamed plain white rice with various toppings. This shop serves some local or regional specialties. "Konoha-don (木の葉丼)" is a rice dish which contains a bowl of steamed white rice topped with half-cooked scrambled egg with ingredients such as "kamaboko" fishcake and mushroom.
"Konoha" literally means falling leaves. It is named as slices of "kamaboko" knelt and steamed fishcake resemble falling autumn leaves.