Aki small daily life |

May 13, 2022

Have you ever eaten noodles filled with sutras from the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra?

Have you ever eaten noodles filled with sutras from the Heart Sutra?

"おきりこみ" is one of the representative local dishes in Gunma Prefecture, and "Nittanoso" from Ota City, Gunma Prefecture improved it and developed a new version of おきりこみ Noodles-Fato (ほうとう).

Its characteristic is the "Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra" [Japanese: Prajna Heart Sutra (はんにゃしんぎょう)] scriptures printed on it.

About おきりこみ

おきりこみ, some will be written as おっきりこみ (おっcut り込み).

It is a local cuisine in Gunma and northern Saitama. It was registered as an intangible folk cultural property in 2014 (Heisei 26).

According to Wikipedia , おきりこみ is noodles made of wheat flour, and dishes cooked with vegetables or roots. The soup is based on soy sauce and miso flavors.

There are different theories about the origin. It is said that udon noodles were popular in the local area at that time, and the cooking method was to flatten the dough, cut it into slices with a knife, and cook it in a pot. (It's a bit like Taiwan's knife-cut noodles, taking the dough and throwing it into boiling water).

Cut it like this, put it in the pot, cut it, put it in the pot, cut it, put it in the pot, and this repeated action named the dish おきりこみ(きりis " cut ",こみhas put, The meaning of entering ), some places are also called " boiled ぼうと " or " boiled ぼうとう ".

Although classified as udon noodles, the method is slightly different. For example, no salt is added when kneading the dough, less water is added to the dough, etc.

Image source: Wikipedia

If you are interested in this dish, you can refer to the recipe and introduction .

About Dharma Lamp (ほうとう)

According to the introduction in the box, the Dharma Lamp is the bright lamp in front of the main hall and the Buddha statue, and it is also the bright lamp that guides the right path.
The Heart Sutra also has the purpose of guiding the way for the world, so the Heart Sutra is also known as the Dharma Lamp.

In ancient times, Buddhist monks copied the Heart Sutra repeatedly to understand the profound meanings. However, paper was very expensive at that time, so they could only be copied on bamboo slips and wooden slips, which were easy to obtain and cut very thinly.

When the pasta culture was popular, Boyu Duoyu (ほうとう) and udon noodles were the food of the noble class and monks and other noble people, and Boyu Duoyu (ほうとう) pronunciation was the same as the pronunciation of the Heart Sutra's alias French lamp (ほうとう). In the same way, the shape of the flat noodles is similar to the bamboo slips and wooden slips that transcribe scriptures.

So he began to write scriptures on noodles, cook them into delicious dishes, and eat while reading scriptures.

Then there are Dharma lamps without scriptures and Dharma lamps with scriptures. With the vigorous development of pasta culture, the noodle has gradually evolved into what it is today.

──The above comes from Aki’s unprofessional translator~

Photo credit https://www.47club.jp/12M-000044fdx/goods/detail/10075831/

out of the box

In these days when I can't move freely, getting such special noodles from friends gives me the illusion of traveling abroad while enjoying Japanese specialties, plus printing scriptures, in this turbulent and unsettled time Feel the peace of mind as if blessed by a god.

First take a frontal photo

The information of the product is published on the back

Take off your coat, it's a very retro carton

Open it, the top is a paper introduction, and the bottom is the soup and noodles.

There are three packets of noodles in a box (one packet for one person, three packets in total) and three packets of soup.

Look at it from another angle~

There are two introductions. The first one is the full text of the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra. The Chinese characters are the same as the Chinese version we are familiar with, but there is a note in Japanese next to it.

On the back is the content of the interpretation by the Sanzang Master Xuanzang.

The other is to introduce the origin of the law lamp (that is, the part about the law lamp of this article)

On the back is the product image and store information.

boil

First, take the noodles out.

A pack of noodles has twelve noodles (two times the scriptures), and although the number is small, each noodles are very thick.

The verse above is printed with edible caramel coloring and bamboo charcoal .

Even if it is boiled in boiling water, the words will not disappear!

Let's take a look at my cooking pictures~

The picture of the noodles tossing in the water is so healing~

(There is a file size limit for converting to gif, and the quality of the image will deteriorate>"<)

Regarding the soup head, the official instructions say that the whole soup head may be too salty, so this time, only two packets of soup head will be added to the three people.

Maybe the taste of the family itself is relatively light, but the actual measurement thinks that one packet is enough (because everyone drinks water after eating, but they don’t feel it when they eat it, which can be called hidden salty ).

No photos were taken of this part, so let me briefly describe it.

Stir fry vegetables, shiitake mushrooms and other ingredients in a pot (the method in the manual), I am lazy, put the soup dumplings in the boiling water directly, put carrots, cauliflower, shiitake mushrooms, tofu and other ingredients into the boiled, done !

(Super lazy>”<)

Clang! Done! Delicious and rich Deng Noodles!

The soup is soy sauce flavored, and the noodles are thick but very springy.

Although the scriptures will not disappear if you boil them in water, but when eating, the chopsticks slide on the noodles for two or three times, and then the characters start to drop. I don’t know if I have cooked for too long.

By the way, the taste of the soup and the texture of the noodles remind me of the famous Nagoya food I have eatenきしめん飊子面↓