Marvelous Soba: Colour-changing noodle broth creates a twist ending to your meal

This Tokyo restaurant will cure your summer blues…for a limited time.

In Japan, some soba noodles are good, some are great, and some are blooming marvellous. The latter is what we’re always seeking in our foodie adventures, so when we heard that leading chain Fuji Soba had a “Marvelous Soba” on the menu for a limited time, we immediately headed over to check it out.

▼ The Marvelous Soba is only available at the Kitasenju East Exit branch, from 1 to 31 July.

The poster at the front of the branch revealed that the special soba had been created in collaboration with the movie Marvelous, which is known as The Protégé overseas.

▼ The 2021 American action thriller stars Maggie Q, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson.

The poster reads: “In the battle that utilised the intelligence and skills of the Kitasenju East Exit store, an unpredictable ending awaits…” 

A soba that replicates the unpredictable ending of a movie? That sounded bloomin’ marvelous to us, so we placed an order for the Marvelous Soba, which can be ordered as a soba, udon, or ramen dish, for 580 yen (US$4.20).

▼ Cheaper than a movie ticket.

We chose to go with soba noodles, and when the bowl arrived, we were pleased to see it came with green onions, chicken and slices of lemon. What really caught our eye, though, was the broth, which was an unusual shade of blue.

We’ve tried a few blue broths before, but while others have been paler in colour, this was a dark, relatively unappetising shade of deep, dark blue.

The entire dish, including the broth, is served cold, providing some much-needed refreshment for a hot summer’s day. Fuji Soba always serves up reliably good noodle dishes at budget prices and this was no exception.

The chicken and lemon went well together, and when combined with the cold soba, it tasted a bit like a cold pasta dish. It was light yet satisfyingly tasty, but before we slurped up everything in our bowl, we had to recreate that surprise ending, with a little help from this bottle of lemon juice, included with our meal.

We squirted a few drops into the bowl…

▼ …and it began to change colour!

The blue broth became purply red, which was definitely an unpredictable outcome for this humble bowl of noodles.

So this is what results from “the battle that utilised the intelligence and skills of the Kitasenju East Exit store”.

As for the science behind the magic, it’s all thanks to the magic power of…look away now if you don’t want to know…

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…butterfly pea, which we’ve been obsessed with since around 2016.

This ingredient changes colour when an acidic component like lemon juice is added, due to the change in Ph levels.

Being able to change the colour of your food is a fun dining experience that we’d love to see on the menu at more noodle chains around Japan, and the only thing that would make it better is if we had a glass of this colour-changing sake on the side!

Restaurant information
Fuji Soba Kitasenju East Exit / 富士そば 北千住東口店
Address: Tokyo-to, Adachi-ku, Senjuasahicho 41-17
足立区千住旭町41番17
Hours: Open 24 hours (closed from 3:00 a.m. to 3:45 a.m. each day)
Website

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