Nagashi somen-style dining at home for when your local restaurant and water park are closed.
With many restaurants closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of us are finding instant noodles becoming a very regular part of our meal plans. At the same time, the closure of movie theaters, shopping centers, and other leisure venues is leaving us hungry for entertainment.
So it’s with great timing that Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy Arts has released something that’s great for when you’ve got a surplus of noodles but are craving some more fun.
The Big Stream Somen Slider Custom might look like a scale-model water slide, and in a sense, that’s what it is. It’s not people or figurines that go down the slippery slope, though, but noodles.
In Japan, there’s a traditional style of eating noodles called nagashi somen, in which chilled noodles flow down a bamboo flume and you pluck them up with your chopsticks as they come to you. The Big Stream Somen Slider Custom puts a modern spin on the aesthetics and adds twists and turns, which also help keep the setup compact enough for even cozy dining rooms.
If you’ve got space to spread out, though, the Big Stream Somen Slider Custom (which is priced at 9,980 yen [US$93]) can grow to meet your needs. The “custom” part of the name comes from the way you can reconfigure it into one of four different arrangements, called (in order of increasing size) the Single Course, Standard Course, Super Long Course, and Angel Course.
Since the noodles slide along in water, this is for eating chilled noodles with, preferably with some sort of sauce or broth to dip them in on the side.
One thing to note, though since everyone’s noodles flow down the same stream, that means every diner’s chopstick tips spend a brief instant in the same water, so in this time of social distancing, you might be best off using the Big Stream Somen Slider Custom for solo dining.
Source, images: PR Times
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[ Read in Japanese ]