Tell us about Fujisoba’s early days back in Japan.
Fujisoba opened its first store in Shibuya, Tokyo in 1966. In the city that never sleeps, it was the first restaurant to operate for 24 hours, making soba to fill the bellies of many hardworking salarymen. As of today, we have over 127 shops in Japan alone.
You bring your buckwheat noodles in from Japan. Given the journey, how do you ensure its quality?
From the point of manufacturing the noodles at a milling plant in Japan, we make sure the quality of the buckwheat flour is uncompromised by maintaining its temperature. Transported carefully, these noodles arrive in Singapore to be kept in our highly controlled storage rooms.
Tell us something interesting about soba, and why it is special.
‘Soba’ is the Japanese word for ‘buckwheat’. Unlike other noodles, soba made with buckwheat flour has a uniquely grainy and almost nutty fragrance. That scent is what most connoisseurs turn to soba for. In fact, when having dipping soba, it is advisable to only dip a third of your noodles into the sauce, so that the aroma of the noodles remains the star.
What’s the one dish that encapsulates the essence of Fujisoba in Singapore?
The Kamo Nabe Hot Pot! The soup base features our original kaeshi sauce and a special dashi broth painstakingly made with quality soda-bushi (mejika flakes), saba-bushi (mackerel flakes) and katsuo-bushi (bonito flakes). The bubbling pot is filled with homemade duck tsukune (meatballs), French duck meat and vegetables. Where’s the soba, you ask? It comes after!
Any tips on how best to enjoy this dish?
Taste the soup base first, and then season with yuzu pepper, special daikon oroshi (grated white radish) or shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven-spice) to your liking. Once you have finished eating everything in the hot pot, enjoy our freshly made soba with the soup that is now greatly enhanced by the duck’s flavours.
Tell us more about your original kaeshi sauce.
The most difficult part of setting our Singapore shop up was the invention of kaeshi, a soy sauce-based seasoning sauce. From the ‘Japanese taste’ we have cultivated over the years, we wanted to create something that would also satisfy Singaporean taste buds. With that in mind, we created two kinds of secret-recipe kaeshi for our warm soba, which is key to our broth having an even richer, flavourful dashi taste.
What is your vision for Fujisoba here in Singapore?
We want every Japanese customer living in Singapore to be at ease while eating at Fujisoba. Through our healthy and delicious dishes, we also hope folks in Singapore will come to know the soba culture that has carried Japan’s appetite for years.
Now that you’ve got the scoop, get the soba! Check out what the Burpple community has to say about Nadai Fujisoba Ni-Hachi here.
