The Maker Speaks
Sanuki-udon
A Kagawa Specialty, but...
A Kagawa Specialty, but...
Hello, everyone. I'm talking about Sanuki-udon, a local dish of Kagawa prefecture. Have you ever been to Kagawa? It is a prefecture located on the northeast of the Shikoku (means four prefectures) island in Japan. Sanuki is the old name of the prefecture, to say shortly.
Udon, it is a kind of Japanese noodle dishes. It is very popular all over Japan, not just in Kagawa. If you want, you can find some udon restaurants anywhere like Hokkaido, Osaka, Saitama and Tokyo. Dishing it up is not hard to find, it means. What's udon? you might ask. The white thick wheat flour noodles... Seeing is believing. Will you refer to the picture set below?
Udon and Inari-zushi@Kagawa
File: Kannonnji udon.jpg
from the Japanese Wikipedia
（Photoed on April 11, 2005）
Was udon first made in Sanuki? No, we have never found what and where it originally came from. It is sure that they have the history of producing udon in Kagawa, but some other prefectures also do. And it was not a specialty of the prefecture before 1970, according to the Nikkei Business for January 27, 2003.
They can't produce udon noodles without wheat. Is Kagawa famous for wheat production? No. The best three of the 2017 domestic wheat production amount is Hokkaido (608,000t), Fukuoka (49,400t), and Saga (34,100t). You can find Kagawa ranked at the 16th, and the production amount was (only) 6,460t. It is said most of wheat for Sanuki-udon are mainly imported from Australia.
So, do they often eat udon noodles in Kagawa? I can't help hesitating to say yes. Why? The Shikoku Shimbun (Shikoku Newspaper) for February 1, 2016 said 50.8 % of Kagawa people had udon once a week. 9.5 % never had it. Can we say "they often have" after reading the article? I think it is difficult. Don't you get it wrong, and I don't mean to deny the Sanuki-udon. It is (surely) a Kagawa specialty, I suppose. However... won't you get what I am hard to say?
Udon, it is a kind of Japanese noodle dishes. It is very popular all over Japan, not just in Kagawa. If you want, you can find some udon restaurants anywhere like Hokkaido, Osaka, Saitama and Tokyo. Dishing it up is not hard to find, it means. What's udon? you might ask. The white thick wheat flour noodles... Seeing is believing. Will you refer to the picture set below?
Udon and Inari-zushi@Kagawa
File: Kannonnji udon.jpg
from the Japanese Wikipedia
（Photoed on April 11, 2005）
Was udon first made in Sanuki? No, we have never found what and where it originally came from. It is sure that they have the history of producing udon in Kagawa, but some other prefectures also do. And it was not a specialty of the prefecture before 1970, according to the Nikkei Business for January 27, 2003.
They can't produce udon noodles without wheat. Is Kagawa famous for wheat production? No. The best three of the 2017 domestic wheat production amount is Hokkaido (608,000t), Fukuoka (49,400t), and Saga (34,100t). You can find Kagawa ranked at the 16th, and the production amount was (only) 6,460t. It is said most of wheat for Sanuki-udon are mainly imported from Australia.
So, do they often eat udon noodles in Kagawa? I can't help hesitating to say yes. Why? The Shikoku Shimbun (Shikoku Newspaper) for February 1, 2016 said 50.8 % of Kagawa people had udon once a week. 9.5 % never had it. Can we say "they often have" after reading the article? I think it is difficult. Don't you get it wrong, and I don't mean to deny the Sanuki-udon. It is (surely) a Kagawa specialty, I suppose. However... won't you get what I am hard to say?
