Carb-on-carb: the Japanese noodle dog

I sniggered when I saw them. A fortnight ago I was in Tokyo on a food trendspotting mission whereupon I found yakisoba pan — noodle buns — in every convenience store. Indeed, nestling on a shelf among white bread sandwiches stuffed with red bean paste and kiddies’ lunchbox treats was some sort of confusing carb fest: a cellophane packet containing a hot dog roll filled with dark brown noodles. I pointed, burbled something like: “Noodles in a bun — really?” and bought one.

Alisa Nojima, who works at the Japan National Tourism Organisation here in London, says you can also find these in most Japanese schools.

“They are popular for school meals. Most of them have small shops in the buildings so the sandwiches always sell. They are popular for high school or junior high school students. It’s not that common to make them at home but I think it’s more likely that people will buy them from convenience stores or some bakeries.”

Why hadn’t we thought of this? Surely the noodle dog could be a London hit? As a student, I had snuck into the cupboard to satisfy many an instant noodle or sandwich-based midnight munchie craving. But a combination of both would have come in extremely handy.

Former Masterchef-winning chef Tim Anderson calls it “a ridiculous sandwich”, while Ken Yamada, co-founder of Japanese restaurant Tonkotsu in Soho, says he is currently trying out some recipes.

Meanwhile, London food blogger Helen Graves recently discovered the yakisoba noodle sandwich when researching for her new book, 101 Sandwiches, out in August.

Having never been to Japan, a friend had contacted Graves — who has an obsession with instant noodles — and told her to try one.

“I thought ‘That’s mental’, then made it and thought ‘Holy s***, this is delicious actually’,” she laughs. Needless to say, her book will include a recipe for it.

Graves makes hers by frying onions, peppers and cabbage together. She then boils the noodles — Graves uses the egg variety — in hot water. “Then sling them in a pan and fry it all together. Put some yakisoba sauce on — it’s sort of like a cross between chilli and barbecue sauce which is quite mild and quite sweet. Then you put strips of pickled ginger on top and some seaweed bits if you fancy.

“People often put sweetened Japanese mayonnaise on top. They love that in Japan. And you take a soft white hot dog roll, cut a hole down the middle and stuff it in.”

Have we lost our snoodle?