Itaria Yakisoba

Niigata Encyclopedia

Going from one place to another in a hurry there are all sorts of things to eat on the go for fast-food, but in the cold there has to be something that has met both of those criteria and that would be Niigata “Italian” or better known as Italian Yakisoba. An Italian Yakisoba consists of: the thick-yakisoba noodles, the stir-fried sauce, and the sauce that is poured over the noodles. The Yakisoba was made to have the flavor of a lighter tasting yakisoba to make the main flavor become the pour sauce, but other cooks used yakisoba as a base and made italian-stir fry sauces, a few adding katsu or omelets, some even went as far as to add gourmet touch to it.

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Sauces
When asking people to categorize a group of recipes of Italian Yakisoba it fell into several overlapping categories: (1.) Tomato-based [Italian, Bolognese], (2.) Cream-based [Carbonara], (3.) Kare-based, (4.) Miso-based [echigo-miso], (5.) Edamame-based, (6.) Sake-based. The noodles that families used would vary based on what they had in the pantry with some using thin yakisoba noodles or some using a larger udon like yakisoba noodle to make their italian yakisoba in a single stir fry with the sauce on the side in a pot. The varieties that were the most interesting would have interesting additions like: eggs with cream, sweet peppers with tomato, citrus with milk, edamame with shishito pepper, cured-pork with sake and mushrooms [enoki, wood ear, shiitake].

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Stir Fries
The stir fry is when the noodles are being cooked with other ingredients to add a unique flavor to them, so in many cases it is important to pay attention to what's inside a stir fry toss. Italian Yakisoba is most notable for its three main ingredients of: (A.) bean sprouts, (B.) onions, and (C.) cabbage that are stir fried to get the flavor of the water out of the vegetable and infused with the sauce and oil that transfers over to a more flavorful noodle to enhance the dish.

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Toppings
The toppings would be a garnish at first with a load of green onions on top that were seasoned or not seasoned, and covered with either cheese, or Japanese mayonnaise. As something to be served quickly the dish of Italian Yakisoba was a humble dish that was classified as B-Class gourmet for better or for worse, so the toppings would be following that from its origins. Eventually those who got tired of a simply small and easily accessible meal were looking for a substantial meal from the beloved yakisoba with sauce and the toppings would start to change.

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Common toppings would be: Japanese Pork Sausage, Arabiki Sausage (Gr.sausage), Vaisu Sausage (Gr. weiss ヴァイスヴルスト ), Italian Gyoza, Takoyaki, Fried Things (Chicken, Wood Ear Mushroom, Shiitake Mushroom), Grilled Things (Chicken), Katsu Things (Beef). Seafoods would include: Nanban Shrimp, Surume Squid, Rock Oysters, Sole Flounder, Kegani Hairy Crab. Jumping to past [1910 Showa] there were: Tomatoes, Asparagus, Eggplant, Japanese Clams, assortments of Shrimp, assortments of Squid, Edamame, Prosciutto, Corn, Diced Garlic, Pickled Garlic Chives (substitute capers), Salt Cured Iriko (substitute anchovies).