Soba and udon were the original fast-food items, providing quick andnutritious meals for those on the go. Perhaps because of the prevalence of suchnoodle carts (and the people who patronized them), soba and udon were oncethought of as a low class food.A curious custom when eating soba and udon (and
menrui
in general) isthat noises such as slurping is allowed. Hot and cold menrui alike are consumedin this manner, with great amounts of noise permitted. One theory for thiscustom presented by Donald Richie in his book A Taste of Japan, is that “…menrui was originally a…low-class food…the lower classes are noisy, andconsequently…it is consumed in its original, highly audible manner” (59).
Proteins
Japan is surrounded by oceans plentiful with aquatic life and seafood is animportant staple of the Japanese diet. Japan’s history is filled with Buddhist-influenced taboos on eating meat, however the consumption of aquatic life waslargely ignored by all but Buddhist monks. The early meat-eating taboo thatpermitted the consumption of seafood helped to develop such a large reliance onseafood within the traditional Japanese diet. In 1989, the Japanese consumedtwelve million tons of fish and shellfish, with only two million tons being importedfrom other countries (Naorai 38)