Yaki udon is essentially stir fried udon noodles with vegetables and meat. The story goes that a restaurant called Darumado in Kokura, Japan, wanted to make yaki soba and ended up using cut up dried udon noodles since soba noodles weren’t available. Using the udon noodles was a way to avoid waste. This story is narrated on the back of the menu at Darumado. Customers responded positively and so the dish was added to the restaurant’s menu. A theory claims that udon came to Japan from China in the 700s. The public started recognising the noodles during the Edo period in the 1600s. There are several types of udon besides yaki udon, including kanto style udon (in which bonito dashi and dark soy sauce is added to the soup) and kansai style udon (in which konbu dashi and light soy sauce is added to the soup).
