Yakisoba

All over Japan, there are many shinise (long-established) yakisoba and okonomiyaki restaurants that have been serving the dish for a long time, and each region has its own unique local gourmet (jp) yakisoba.

History

From around 1907, during the Meiji era, a large number of Chinese restaurants featuring Chinese chefs dispatched from Yokohama Chinatown, as well as eateries serving shina soba (the precursor to ramen), began opening in Asakusa, Tokyo. Some of these chefs had been forced to leave the United States due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and came to Japan seeking work. From the late Meiji through the Taishō era, the number of Japanese yatai (street food stalls) specializing in shina soba increased, and the Chinese-style noodles use for them became familiar to Tokyoites.

Meanwhile, around 1897, also during the Meiji era, street stalls selling teppanyaki began appearing. These dishes were inspired by tempura and involved grilling ingredients like squid, shrimp, and ginger mixed with flour and water. This style of cooking became the prototype for okonomiyaki-like dishes.

It is believed that yakisoba first appeared around 1918 at street stalls specializing in dondonyaki (jp) for children (the precursor to okonomiyaki) around the late Taishō to the early Shōwa era (c. 1920s). It used the same sauce and ingredients as dondonyaki but substituted the relatively cheaper Chinese-style noodles for wheat flour ones, the price of which had soared due to the 1918 Rice riots.

In 1935, during the Shōwa era, street food stalls specializing in Worcestershire sauce-flavored yakisoba gained popularity in Tokyo, and the dish was also served at okonomiyaki restaurants in Asakusa, where it was considered a local specialty.

After Japan's WWII defeat in 1945, Japanese repatriates (jp) returning from Japan's overseas territories ate yakisoba at black markets in Tokyo. This led to the dish spreading to their hometowns, gradually extending its popularity throughout Japan.