Hyper-Telegenic Noodles, at Okiboru House of Udon | The New Yorker
"Even if you have trouble spotting Okiboru House of Udon’s nondescript shopfront, you won’t miss the line that winds halfway down the East Village block; the shop doesn’t take reservations or permit takeout, and its cozy quarters (eighteen slender counter seats) plus hype from foodie TikTokers and microinfluencers mean long waits (an aspiring diner said he had been waiting forty-five minutes). If you’re lucky enough to be ushered in you may be tempted to film immediately—the Altoid-like tablet that blooms into a warm hand towel and the three-second menu (three items and one vegan alternative) are irresistibly photogenic. The signature dish is the cold Himokawa udon: served in a ceramic ring bowl that echoes an oversized ring light, the noodles are beguilingly wide Möbius-strip–like ribbons of silk—sleek, slippery, and best handled with the supplied tongs for a bite before dunking in the dipping sauce, which clings pleasingly though is a touch too salty for my taste; it’s also offered in a hot soup. My favorite, and the least featured in the videos I’d seen, was the matcha-flavored dipping udon—a comely mass of wriggly jade-colored “worms” nestled on crushed ice—whose texture unfurls slowly and whose flavor moves from slight sweetness to a surprising savory seaweed note and finishes on a complicated, satisfying nuttiness; noodle sets with tempura are $24. Co-owner Justin Lim (53) told me that udon and tsukemen are all about the noodles, and he and partner Naoki Kyobashi previously opened a hugely popular, similarly minimalist tsukemen shop in 2022 after years of learning to make them." - J, i, a, y, a, n, g, , F, a, n
