What Is Yakisoba? Yakisoba Will Become Your Next Favorite

Yakisoba is a type of noodle dish that consists of pan-fried wheat noodles, pork or other meat, cabbage, carrots, onions, and bean sprouts. 

This is a Japanese fried noodle dish.

And noodles in yakisoba are the same as noodles in a bowl of  ramen.

Yakisoba is a family of ramen, but it is not considered as ramen.

1. Yakisoba and ramen are somewhat similar to Vaporeon and Flareon

They evolved from Eevee.

Ramen has soup, but yakisoba doesn’t.

2. The yakisoba from the stall on a festival day tastes really good

Yakisoba is a classic go-to food for festivals in Japan.

What type of festival foods are there in your country?

A stall vendor cooks these noodles in front us,

On a huge grill plate.

And these meat, veggies, and noodles make a loud sizzling sound while they are being cooked.

And you can also smell the aroma of sweet sauce.

I am not sure why it feels so tasty.

Probably the atmosphere of the festival makes it so yummy?

3. Yakisoba noodles are made of wheat flour, water, and kansui

They are chewy, have a yellow color,

And they have a distinct ramen noodle flavor.

Noodles for ramen are boiled but yakisoba are steamed.

By steaming noodles, they can have some fluffiness compared to boiled noodles.

These noodles go well with yakisoba.

Because it has the right amount of water in the noodles.

Not too much, not too little.

The other thing is…

Yakisoba noodles are coated with oil

The oil makes these noodles untangle easily when you pan-fry them.

4. Sauce yakisoba was born because of cabbages

The sweet yakisoba sauce was born in the 40’s.

In this period of time, there was a food shortage because of the war.

So chefs decided to use a lot of cabbages in yakisoba in order to increase the portion.

Because cabbages are cheap there.

However, cabbage makes the taste of yakisoba thin.

It contains a lot of water.

So using the thick yakisoba sauce was the perfect solution for this.

5. Here are popular yakisoba toppings…

Toppings of yakisoba are sliced pork, cabbage, bean sprout, carrots, and green bell peppers

While chashu, ajitama, green onions and nori seaweed are popular ramen toppings,

Fried vegetables are the most common topping of yakisoba.

Pork brings the savory taste and umami into yakisoba.

You pan-fry sliced pork before the vegetables.

So the vegetables can catch oil and umami from the pork.

Cabbage adds the freshness and crispiness of the vegetable.

It must be cut small, so you can easily bite it.

Bean sprouts go with the yakisoba sauce.

Get rid of the water as much as you can before pan-frying it.

So you won’t thin out the taste of the yakisoba.

Carrot makes your yakisoba colorful.

You need to cut it thin so it will be cooked fast.

I like the sweetness of the carrots.

This Japanese green bell pepper has a bitter taste.

Some people hate it,

But I think it adds a nice kick to yakisoba.

 

 

Beni Shoga is red pickled strips of ginger. You can find this as a topping on almost all yakisoba in Japan.

The unique taste of benishoga complements yakisoba very well.

I said, between yakisoba and ramen,

The only thing that is the same is the noodles but…

6. Besides sauce yakisoba, there are shio yakisoba, gomoku yakisoba, and kata yakisoba

In Japan, simply saying yakisoba means sauce yakisoba which we were talking about.

It has a salty-sweet sauce taste.

However, there are different kinds of yakisoba out there…

7. Shio yakisoba is made from salt, chicken bouillon, and some lemon juice

When you feel like eating yakisoba but you are not in the mood for the thick sweet-salty sauce, this is a great option.

The fresh taste of shio yakisoba enhances the taste of the veggie toppings.

8. Gomoku yakisoba has a hot and runny sauce on the noodles

The sauce of gomoku yakisoba is made by adding water and starch to…

Pan-fried shiitake mushroom, carrots, shrimp, a bamboo shoot, and pork.

It is very satisfying to eat gomoku yakisoba.

Because there are a lot of veggies, seafood, meat, and of course noodles in it!

9. Kata yakisoba deep fried crispy noodles

Kata yakisoba and gomoku yakisoba have the same hot and runny sauce.

However, there is a big difference.

Gomoku yakisoba has soft noodles,

And kata yakisoba has hard noodles instead.

“Kata” means hard in Japanese.

These hard noodles have a snacky feeling.

Yakisoba itself is already yummy.

10. However, there are some dishes that use yakisoba as an ingredient

Then they must be really good!

Here are the examples of these yakisoba food…

11. Yakisoba-pan is a sandwich that has yakisoba inside the bread

It might sound weird to you because it is a combination of two different types of carbs.

Bread and yakisoba noodles.

But surprisingly they go well together.

12. Yakisoba is in modan-yaki

Modan-yaki is a Japanese savory pancake dish and it is considered a type of okonomiyaki.

This is made of wheat flour batter, yakisoba, and other toppings.

You can enjoy okonomiyaki and yakisoba at the same time!

13. Sobamesi is mixture of fried rice and yakisoba

You pan-fry rice and yakisoba together.

The yakisoba sauce also goes well with rice.

This food is a local speciality of Kobe.

14. Yakisoba doesn’t have soba noodles but it is called soba

This is because a long time ago in Japan, the word soba was used to just mean “noodles”.

Since yakisoba is created from noodles of ramen,

It might be more accurate to call it yaki-ramen.

Next one is worse…

15. Instant yakisoba is neither yaki nor soba

Yaki means pan-fried in Japanese.

And here is how to cook instant yakisoba.

Boil water in a kettle. Then open the package and pour the hot water.

After 3 minutes, get rid of the hot water and mix the seasoning packet.

Done! Your instant yakisoba is ready to eat.

Did you pan-fry these noodles?

No, you didn’t.

Is instant yakisoba made of soba flour?

No, it isn’t.

Well, but it tastes really good!

Due to Covid, a lot of good ramen restaurants have closed

It makes me feel very angry.

I used to eat ramen out frequently,

But in this situation, 

Ramen shops have started to shorten the hours, limit the number of customers, or even closed their shops.

It has affected the industry so much.

I am afraid good ramen will be gone

But meanwhile, you still can enjoy ramen in the comfort of your own home.

Here are some of my recommendations for ramen lovers.

1. Sapporo Ichiban Shio Flavor

MY THOUGHTS OVERALL ★★★★☆

In truth, Sapporo Ichiban delivers a good quality shio ramen experience.

Actually, it is very difficult to find good shio ramen.

Do you know why?

Because it is very difficult to make it since it is very simple.

There are many good shoyu and miso flavored instant noodles out there.

But I feel specifically, the shio flavor market is monopolized by Sapporo Ichiban.

Think about this for a moment having good shio ramen for your dinner with your favorite ramen toppings.

Now, you want some, don’t you?

2. Nissin Raoh Shoyu Flavor

MY THOUGHTS OVERALL ★★★★★

It is nearly impossible to make restaurant quality noodles at home without the right tools and equipment.

How can you beat that?

Using Raoh’s shoyu flavour will help you achieve this easily. This is top-notch ramen hands down!

One pinnacle of instant noodles is the soy sauce flavor. It is expensive compared to regular ones but let me tell you, it deserves every single penny.

In a nutshell, I loved every bit of it.

...And I am sure you will too.

3. The problem here is that no toppings come with these packets.

Here are some topping options and recipes for you.

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😢 ...small bowls that aren’t large enough for soups, noodles and toppings.

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About the Author

Kei is a self-proclaimed ramen lover, blog writer and founder of "Apex S.K. Japanese tableware".

"I am from Ibaraki, Japan.

Ramen is great! It can bring you a sense of happiness and satisfaction that no other food can. I have been eating ramen for 30 years.

If there is no ramen, my life would be miserable.

Ten years ago, I worked as an office worker. The job was really stressful - excessive working hours, low wages, unpaid overtime work, and constantly being yelled at by my boss.

I was new and alone, no girlfriend, no friends, and felt very lonely.

My only oasis was the ramen shop near the office. For me, the ramen chef there was literally an angel. I saw a halo on his head. (No joke)

Tonkotsu shoyu ramen was my all-time favorite. He made ramen with broth chock-full of umami flavor, nice chewy handmade noodles, and tender chashu.

My greatest dream is connect people with ramen through my blog. I want to share a lot of interesting and funny stories and ramen trivia with you.

Knowing more about ramen can help you appreciate your ramen and make it taste extra delicious."

Did you know that we offer more than just a ramen blog?

We also have an exclusive collection of ramen-inspired t-shirts and hoodies that any true noodle lover will adore.

Head over to ApexRamen and check it out for yourself.