A former civil servant who came to the U.S. to try "the same udon noodles as in Japan"
When I moved to Los Angeles from Japan 25 years ago, ramen culture had not yet blossomed here. There were only a few soba noodle shops, udon shops such as " Sanuki no Sato " in Gardena, which is still in business even though the owner has changed, and "Kotohira" in Tozai Plaza, which had just opened.
In his hometown of Oita Prefecture, people ate udon noodles rather than soba noodles. Moreover, they ate thin broth instead of the thick soup of the Kanto region. The udon he ate when he moved to Tokyo at the age of 18 was different from the udon he had been accustomed to. The flavor was too strong and it just felt strange.
However, the udon I ate at Sanuki no Sato in Los Angeles was from Western Japan, as the name suggests. It was very similar to the udon in our area. Still, as far as I know, the number of udon restaurants in Los Angeles has not increased for a long time, and only ramen restaurants have increased.
One udon restaurant that left a lasting impression on me was Marugame Monzo, which opened along First Street in Little Tokyo about two and a half years ago. Its unique and creative menu items, such as sea urchin cream pasta that is popular with Americans, became a hot topic, and it has grown into a thriving restaurant that serves as many as 500 bowls of udon a day on weekends.
Akira Segawa, the manager behind Monzou, had a unique background. Born in Tokushima Prefecture, next to Kagawa, the birthplace of Sanuki udon, and working at the Kagawa branch of the Ministry of Construction (now the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism), Segawa would visit every udon restaurant near the construction site and eat at every one of them. He started a "udon lovers club" at work, and began making his own hand-made udon during his lunch break and serving it to his colleagues. Still not satisfied, his passion for udon grew, and he enrolled in a school for making udon. He gave up his stable job as a national civil servant.
After graduating, he worked for a while selling fresh noodles online, but then he moved overseas to help his younger brother, who had already moved to the U.S., with his restaurant business. After that, he came up with a plan to open an udon restaurant in Los Angeles. After much trial and error with the ingredients to create a dough similar to that in Japan, he finally opened Monzo in the spring of 2015.
When I spoke to him two years ago, Segawa said, "I don't think there are many people who travel to Japan just to eat udon, but I would be happy if people thought they could eat real Sanuki udon in America without having to go to the original place in Japan." I have never been to the original Sanuki, but the udon that the former national government official took the time and effort to make was chewy and delicious.
Cafeteria-style Marugame Seimen opens first mainland store in Sawtelle
A year and a half before experiencing Monzo, I ate udon at "Marugame Seimen" in Hawaii. It is easy to confuse the two, but Marugame Monzo and Marugame Seimen are different companies. Marugame Seimen is managed by Toridoll, a Japanese listed company. According to its official website , it has 203 stores in 12 countries around the world. There are two stores in Hawaii, and I went to the Waikiki store. The store was just across Kuhio Avenue from the hotel where I was staying. Every time I looked down from my room, there was a long line in front of the store. I also made up my mind and joined the line. After waiting for about 30 minutes, I reached the end of the order counter. First, I ordered my favorite udon, such as bukkake udon or kamaage udon, and after receiving it, I picked up the various tempura lined up on the counter and placed them on my plate.
After paying the bill, I added toppings of my choice, such as spring onions and tempura flakes, and headed to the table. The udon was smooth and I finished it in no time. But it wasn't just the taste that impressed me. The smoothness of receiving the food in cafeteria style was very convenient. This should be popular with Americans. You don't have to wait for your food after ordering at the table. However, you will have to wait while you are waiting in line.
In the end, I ended up going there many times during my stay, and also when I went on a business trip to Hawaii the following year. After that, I went to eat at Marugame Seimen in Japan. The system is the same in Hawaii and Japan. Then, in the latter half of 2016, I heard that the first Marugame Seimen store on the US mainland would be opening in Sawtelle, Los Angeles. I was told it would open at the beginning of 2017, but time passed and the grand opening finally took place in September 2017.
The location of the store, Sawtelle, is a hotbed of Japanese food, home to Tsujita, a tsukemen restaurant that is hugely popular among Americans, the conveyor-belt sushi restaurant KULA, and Curry House, run by House Foods.
When I went to the tasting session just before the grand opening, there were some menu items I didn't remember in Hawaii. These were mini rice bowls and iced teas. There were also some new types of udon on the menu, such as beef tomato udon and tofu salad udon. It seems that the menu in the mainland United States is more conscious of non-Japanese customers.
Two weeks after the tasting, I visited the Sawtelle store again at my friend's request, and found a long line, just like the one I had seen in Hawaii.
Ramen shops are already saturated in the Los Angeles area. I think the era of udon may be coming, but I want to avoid waiting in line. It seems like the best solution would be to have "West Udon" and "Naruto Udon", which have many stores in my hometown, expand into the US and balance supply and demand, but what do you think?
© 2017 Keiko Fukuda
