Nittanosho Kanzantei, a small eatery in Ota, has caught the attention of many food enthusiasts by launching a dish that is not part of the restaurant’s traditional menu: the divine noodles. Initially, this special dish was created as a souvenir to meet the demand for cooking noodles at home or as a gift, but due to its eye-catching appearance, it has become a sensation on social media.
Instead of being cut into small strands, the noodles are cut into large, thick rectangular sheets, each adorned with large characters. The material used for printing the characters is also edible and retains its color even after cooking. Therefore, diners can read the printed content on the noodle sheets while eating.
A package of divine noodles from Nittanosho Kanzantei features the complete Heart Sutra, a text considered the most sacred in Buddhism. At many temples in Japan, this sutra is often distributed to visiting guests in paper form, but the small eatery discovered that printing the sutra content on noodle sheets is also quite fitting.
Although the noodle dish has attracted significant attention from the online community and food lovers, the restaurant refuses to serve it on-site. According to a representative of the eatery, it is believed that the central content regarding meditation practices in the sutra is more suitable for a private space at home.
A package of divine noodles contains about 260 characters, along with a booklet providing the complete content, helping readers better understand kanji and offering a modern language translation for those unfamiliar with the sutra.
According to the official website of the eatery, the divine noodles are “printed” using a mixture of bamboo charcoal starch and food-grade caramel color made from wheat. Although the characters may fade slightly after cooking, diners can still read the content. The restaurant also shares that if you want the dish to taste even better, you can cook the noodles with vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, onions, and taro.
The divine noodles are currently only sold in Gunma Prefecture. A package containing three servings comes with dashi seasoning for added flavor and is priced at approximately 1,620 yen (equivalent to over 200,000 VND).
In addition to this unique divine noodle dish, Japan is also home to many dishes with rather unusual combinations, such as miso soup served with ice cream cones or alien buns…