Soup for Noodles & Tempura

Mentsuyu, the strong, salty soup stock used in soba and udon noodle dishes, and ten-tsuyu, the dipping sauce for tempura, are made from dashi, katsuobushi, soy sauce, mirin and sugar. There are two basic types of mentsuyu: kaketsuyu, which is poured hot over boiled noodles to make noodle soup, and tsuketsuyu, which literally means ‘dipping soup’ and is used as a dip for chilled noodles. Tentsuyu is left to cool before being served, accompanied by grated daikon (white giant radish), with freshly fried tempura.