New Year's Eve 2006

It is customary in Japan to eat soba-noodles on New Year's Eve. I guess its like how Americans eat roast turkey on Thanksgiving. There are many theories on the origin of this tradition. One theory dates back to the Edo-period in the 1600's. A goldsmith of the period came up with the idea of using soba-noodle dough to clean his shop on New Year's Eve by kneeding the dough to pick up the gold dust and particles. The more popular and well-known theory is that eating "noodles" brings longivity symbolyzed by eating "long" noodles. No matter what the origin of the tradition is, most Japanese families have soba-noodles on New Year's Eve to bid farewell to the year that is about to pass and look forward to the new year that is about to begin.

So every year in our household, we also find a way to partake in this tradition. When we lived in St. Louis, it meant buying packaged dry soba-noodles at Mitsuwa Japanese Supermarket in Chicago, making the soup ourselves, and eating them at home. During the three years that we lived in Tokyo, there were many popular and famous shops that sold their fresh soba-noodles. In most cases, advance reservation was a must. So we did exactly that - placed our order in advance and cooked them at home to enjoy with family. One year, we actually waited in a queue outside of the restaurant for over 90 minutes in the cold weather for one of the best soba-noodle I've had in my life.

New Year's Eve 2006 was no different. We debated whether to go out or order in. We decided to go out. We had heard from friends that "Sobaya" in East Village is one of the best soba-noodle shops in NY Manhattan. So we planned ahead with another family friend and decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, this place does not take reservations for dinner. So we went there ready to wait in queue if necessary to have the best soba-noodle in NY. Of course other Japanese and New Yorkers had the same idea. On our way there in the cab, our friend called and said that there is at least a 90-minute wait (and it was still 6:00pm). Fortunately, the restaurant allowed us to leave our names and phone number so that we can do other things while we wait. So we waited at a near by tea house. The wait was actually not that long. We got the call after about 50 minutes.

The wait was worth every minute of it. The soba-noodle is actually made right in the restaurant. There was a soba maker in the restaurant, kneeding the dough. I ordered the "ten-zaru" or cold soba with tempura. Fresh soba-noodle was cooked just right - not too soft and not too hard. It was balanced, the right amount of buckwheat flour ("soba" flour) and wheat flour, so that I can actually taste the "soba" flour. A nice way to close out 2006.

We also ordered some appetizers for the table - tuna wrapped in yuba, shrimp shumai, and goma-ae. We were disappointed that they were out of dashi-maki.

The service was friendly and attentive, in spite of the fact that it was probably the busiest night of the year.

Would go back again - next time try other things on the memu. They all looked good. Ten-don sounded quite attractive.

Sobaya
229 East 9th Street
New York, NY 10003
212-533-6966
www.sobaya-nyc.com