00:10
So, I have shared that I have some wisdom to share with you regarding udon. I mean,
tsurudon sounds all good, but my most important argument that I'm about to start is separate from
those two, you know, tips that I'm sharing with you. Okay, right, you mentioned an argument that
you were about to, that was very generous. The argument that needs a space on this podcast is
which is better, soba or udon? Oh, oh. Or ramen. If you want to go in, if you want to throw in any
other noodles for that matter. Why, why did you do this? Soba, udon, or ramen? Why, why would you put?
Because, because there is a clear answer, what is the better one, and I am not backing off from
that. I'm just kind of, I'm just kind of curious what, you know, other people think about this.
I'm not sure, are you allowed to say you're just curious what other people think when you
open up with... I will be judging you if you blur out the wrong answer. What if I was just like
spaghetti? I mean, that was not even on the list then. Yeah, but isn't that like a pure
westerner thing to do? Just be like, I refuse. I mean, you could, you could. All right. It's,
it's a new... Am I allowed, am I allowed to ask any questions, or do I just have to like
pick one and then die on the hill that I stand on? I mean, like, maybe, maybe,
maybe pick one first and share your thought process with me, and then ask questions.
Okay. All right. Let's see here. Glenn is thinking.
All right. This is an audio podcast. Yes, yeah. Like, people are gonna worry if we stay silent
for too long. Oh, yeah, right. We did, we did say that if it went silent, that my computer blew up.
So, that, that would be a concern. I'm so torn. I've never, I've never come to this,
like, debate question before. This is not something I would argue. Why would I argue this?
Oh, people might not like this one. I'm gonna walk through the first step. I haven't chosen one yet,
but I have removed Soba from my options. Okay. So, what? How come?
A short answer. I like it less. Okay. The long answer is that I feel like I'm leaning towards,
03:01
as far as, I don't like to, that this is the definition for best that I think I'm using,
and I am probably semi-biased because I just ate Udon, of which was, like, fairly good. But I'm,
I'm liking the types of noodles that I would be getting in an Udon, of which you can get something
close to in the Ramens that you get. And in Ramen, I assume we're including Tsukemen because you can
use... Okay, yeah, you can include that. Okay. So, like, kind of... So, you like Tsukemen more than,
like, Ramen? I, I think I, I think I might say that. Oh, interesting. But it's only if I'm looking for,
like, the, if I'm really looking for the noodles, I would probably be specifically going out of my way
for the thicker noodles. Okay. Which would put me in those two categories. That doesn't exclude,
right? Because there are variants here. But yeah, it would put me in those categories,
which are technically more in the Udon range, right? When I think about, like, flavor of things
that I've had, the most enjoyable ones that I've had have been Ramen. But that's also because,
like, in the last two months, I've been invited to go to, like, some really nice, like, sort of
Ramen shops. So, like, okay, I'm heavily biased in terms of my experience, because my Soba experience
is low. Sure, recency bias can be taken care of. All right, all right, give me, just like,
like, give me your judgment. So, so, so you, you went wrong right off the bat. I knew I did,
because I could tell, yeah, there was something. Because Soba is one and only correct answer.
Why? Why is Soba the correct answer? Well, you can make it as healthy or as unhealthy as you like.
Okay, I'll, I'll follow you. All right. You can, you can, you can have a simple Soba with
just the tsuyu, mentsuyu, kakesoba. No topping, just Soba. Still good. You can have tororo.
Have you had those? What are they? It's a type of yam that you grate it. Yeah, I know what it is.
To make this thing that, like, yeah, tororo. It's just like a, it's like a little bubble of,
not a bubble, white thing. Yeah, yeah. So that, that, I think tororo goes best with Soba. Okay.
06:02
And I like tororo a lot. All right. You can enjoy hot or cold. Both are enjoyable formats of Soba.
Okay. And to me, the best part is that it takes less time to cook
than the other noodles. I mean, maybe not ramen, because I don't really think about
cooking ramen on my own, right? I'm not, I'm not comparing like, you know, those instant ramen
noodles. I'm comparing like a restaurant quality ramen. So I'm not really preparing it. Okay.
But Soba, which I cook a lot, can be, it's done in usually four to six minutes,
compared to pasta, which usually takes like nine to 11 minutes. Yeah. And also has high protein
content. Even though it's like, you know, it looks like it's a base, it's a source of carbohydrate,
which it is, but it also has surprisingly high amount of protein because buckwheat is high
protein content. So if you, and you can get a different ratio ones, right? You could get
the two to eight buckwheat to flour ratio ones. But if you get, you can get all buckwheat ones
also. And those are what I usually like. So that's why Soba is a superior noodle than others.
All right. And you can make it unhealthy by tacking on some tempura, right? Like you can
add tempuras on the side and, and make it all unhealthy. And, and that's also fine if you feel,
you know, splurgy with your caloric content. Is that the kakiage? Kakiage? Yeah. Yeah. The one,
the like sort of disc shaped one, right? That you can sort of make. Yes. The one that's like a,
like a collage, a bunch of different items. You have reminded me that I have had that for Soba,
and it was enjoyable to eat for experiential purposes. So good. I feel. And I think, I think
tempura goes the best with Soba than Udon. Like Udon, you can put tempura or like any other
agemono type okazu. In fact, if you go to Marukame or Hanamaru, you like a lot of the
toppings you choose are like a deep fried ones, which people, I guess, think that they go well
together, but they're wrong. I really wish, maybe, maybe if I see you do that wrong face again,
I'll just take a quick screenshot and send it to you. Because like, the intensity you came at me
09:00
there with certainty is like, I have been preparing this hill for like decades. And now
I will make sure that I stay on this hill. And this is where I will die.
But yeah, Soba. It's a hill made of Soba, yes.
Okay, I see and hear all of your reasons on these ones. And I do agree that they are valid. I agree
in terms of like the speed, in terms of the customizability, in terms of the
wait, hold on the last one that you were that you were mentioning. Well, you mentioned like
hot and cold protein content that is that is surprisingly, like sort of important and notable.
I don't think I can say anything towards the protein content. I mean, the rest are
not that, right? Like unless you were to make them out of buckwheat. I'm, I'm torn in terms
of things like the hot and cold, where I think, okay, so, so the Udon has the option of being
hot or cold. Right? I haven't had, I haven't had both, but they did have cold versions of Udon.
But I can't say anything about it. Technically, okay, I don't really know what that is like.
Because yeah, that's not something that I've had. I guess it would be fine. Right? I don't,
I don't quite know. It's not bad. I think it's it's you you have a more chewy sensation. Okay,
then the hot one where it essentially continues to cook in a broth. Got it. Right. Okay. Yep.
That makes sense. Okay, so maybe and in terms of like the hot or cold soba, though,
they tend to be basically the same texture experience, right? You're maybe not changing.
I mean, I haven't, I haven't had the same concept. The warm soba will still get the more
to cook in the broth. So it does get a little softer. Okay.
Um, but there are like on a cold day, you know, in winter, what you want is like a nice
katsuobushi broth with soba. Okay, I feel like that statement you just made was entirely
biased and opinionated. But I don't know. I feel like and also, I think hot soba goes
better with tempura, in my opinion, like kakiage and stuff. If you put it on a warm broth,
it like soaks up a little bit of broth and gets nice and like, crumbly, but like almost juicy.
And like, that is more fun in soba than in udon because udon has too much texture of its own.
12:07
You know, it's too big personality fighting at each other. Okay. Okay. Whereas like soba
is just like a great base of all the toppings that you can put on.
I'm sorry. You can essentially put all the same things as you do on udon, I think.
Like you can put the kamo, like you had in your tsurutontan. You can do
yeah, tempura, you can do sansai soba, which is like a bunch of veggies, usually. And
you can, some people even like putting fish in it, like nishin soba toka.
What's nishin? Nishin is herring, I want to say. Okay. Yeah. I don't know many of the fish. Sure.
But yeah, I just think soba is more versatile. And I like a lot of things. I like eating
this soba with natto and kimchi and things like that. Like you can do like brothless version
of soba as well. Like you can do like more pasta-esque looking soba than like a soupy soba.
I, for all the listeners, I'm just enjoying watching the sort of joy and passion and
like, this is the best thing in the world. I'm just saying, soba is better. I mean,
maybe you've convinced a whole bunch of people out there. I feel like you definitely would have.
I'm feeling like I should go eat more soba. I think I can convince people
if they care any bit about protein content, because that is something that definitely has
an advantage over other things. If you lean into the protein content, you will get all of the
gym goers. All of the votes. And also, generally speaking, it's easier to keep it
asari flavor in soba. Like not too oily, not too like,
like it's still filling, but it's not too like heavy on the topping. You don't have to go all
out on your topping to make it good. Whereas like, udon without a topping is like bland gnocchi,
you know? I hope no Italians listen to this podcast. Say something about how light.
I mean, even an Italian wouldn't eat like unsauced gnocchi.
I won't speak for the Italians on that one. I'm not sure. I feel like unless I mean,
15:03
maybe there's different levels here, but there's something about like
making a pasta, right? That whole process is something very, very important. I mean,
they're supposed to have a particular sauce to go with the pasta design, right? So there's,
there's that. But also I could feel myself like really appreciating
like a particular pasta that was made. But, but that's not your point.
That's it for the show today. Thanks for listening and find us on x at Ego de Science,
that is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C. See you next time.
