GOSEN, Niigata -- Right beside the entrance to Hinode Shokudo, an old-style eatery located in a shopping street near a train station, is a hand-made signboard saying, "We have satoimo noodles." The shop's owner devised the noodles using a taro variety called Kinuotome, which is the city's specialty.
Third-generation owner Hideyuki Shibano, 54, trained at Chinese and French restaurants in Tokyo after graduating from high school in Niigata, and then took over the Hinode Shokudo eatery. It offers about 60 items, ranging from rice bowl dishes to set meals. Dishes using the taro noodles that the eatery began offering in December 2010 are particularly popular.
After the collapse of the bubble economy, "the city's population declined, and little by little it got stagnant," Shibano said. Hoping to create a new local food that would attract people to Gosen, Shibano came up with the idea of making noodles from satoimo.
Shibano worked with another restaurant that has a noodle-making machine, and they spent about two years developing the new noodle. It has a chewy texture and doesn't get soggy, and also goes well with Japanese, Western, Chinese and other foods. They grind Kinuotome into powder to mix with flour.
This method made it possible to offer the noodles throughout the year.
The most popular menu item is satoimo noodles in kenchin-jiru style, priced at 800 yen and offered only from October to May. Kenchin-jiru is a soup using root vegetables, tofu and other ingredients.
As the name suggests, the dish has many ingredients, such as large pieces of Kinuotome, carrots and daikon radish, and the wavy noodles go well with the soup using bonito stock. Cream pasta and pan-fried noodles, both priced at 800, yen are also popular.
Dishes using satoimo noodles are now offered at about 10 restaurants in the city, according to Shibano. "I hope satoimo noodles will become more famous in the future, so that many people come to Gosen from Niigata Prefecture and elsewhere to eat them," he said.
Hinode Shokudo
Open: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Closed on an irregular schedule
Address: 1-8-4 Ekimae, Gosen, Niigata Prefecture
Phone: (0250) 42-2331
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