Making soba noodles the easy way

Reporting from Tokyo and Los Angeles -- At Akila Inouye's Tsukiji Soba Academy in Tokyo, a specially made wooden cabinet has 108 small cubbyholes, each containing a scroll of thick brown or green paper printed with a question. "How to finish the soba dough so that the surface is completely smooth?" "What is the ideal shape of soba cutting knives?" "How difficult is it to mill buckwheat flour oneself?"

By Betty Hallock

December 30, 2009