Itsu

thamshere

This Isn't Japanese 3rd March 2009

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Itsu is a large, unweildy sort of a place. It offers a range of standardised 'Japanese' fare. Soup noodles, fried noodles, sushi sets, bento sets. That sort of thing. It's popular, which means it's got a fast turnaround, which means the food should be fresh.

On the downside, it also means the food is mass-produced and any attention to detail (is there a word for this in Japanese? Probably) is lost. I tried the soup noodles - a mass of over-cooked noodles in a uniform broth. The ingredients had gotten to know eachother. They had become old friends and, like old friends, they were rather difficult to separate.

As with most Japanese food, to be really good, soup noodles have to be made on the spot. The veg should be crispy. Flavours should stand out. The ingredients shouldn't just be fresh, but so recently introduced that they barely remember eachother's names.

I guess I'm asking too much from a fast-food chain store, but I don't see that as an excuse. It's more of a conceptual faliure. Soup noodles are fast food by definition. I've seen them prepared almost from scratch in front of me in 30 seconds or less. But no. Let's make it quicker. Cheaper. Nastier. Oh well.

Of course, if the price reflected this lack of ideals I might forgive them. Unfortunately, it doesn't. I can get a bowl of excellent noodles in the Bento Box Cafe in Camden for the same price.

I wish time and again that the art of the soup-noodle stand had made its way from the East over here. I wish I could go for lunch at a tiny place staffed by an old woman and wreathed in steam from the stock pots. I wish I could sit at one of the stools at the bar, have my food infront of me thirty seconds later and then, with my belly full of fine, fresh ingredients and my mouth full of flavour, be on my way, my pocket hardly feeling any lighter.

Instead, I have Itsu.