ちばけんさんの おぼえた日記 - 2016年7月17日(日)

[記事]
Japan's wanko soba challenge: The ultimate all-you-can-eat noodle binge
究極の食べ放題そば[わんこそば]に挑戦
By Karla Cripps, CNN, July 8, 2016

The restaurant server's expression, a contrast to her sweet yet firm shouts, bordered on boredom.
Yet she was relentless.
The soba noodles kept coming.
As soon as I emptied my tiny bowl, she swooped in to fill it with another mouthful, yelling "hai dan dan!"
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This scene played out 33 times.
Telling her to stop was pointless.
The tower of empty bowls rose beside me, a monument to my gluten-free gluttony.
There was only one way to ebb the noodle flow -- put a lid on my wanko.
Go ahead and snicker, but wanko means "bowl" in the local dialect.
It's all part of the wanko soba challenge, an all-you-can-eat buckwheat noodle binge unique to Japan's Iwate prefecture.

給仕さんの言いまわしは、彼女の甘いがしっかりした掛け声とは対照的にものぐさに近い。[??]⇒[給仕の表情は,彼女の甘いがしっかりした掛け声とは対照的に嫌気がさしている様子だった。] だが、彼女は容赦しなかった。 そばがつづいてくる。私が小さなお椀を空にするとすぐ、彼女は合間を縫って別の一口をwankoに入れる。そして「ハイ ダン ダン!」と掛け声をかける。このシーンが 33 回続いた。 彼女におしまいといっても無駄だった。空のお椀が脇に高く積み重なり、私のグルテンフリーの大食いの記念碑となる。 止める方法は1 つだけ、wankoにふたを置くこと。さあ、さあ～そしてクスﾂと笑う、だが、wankoは地元の方言で「お椀」のことをいう。 これがワンコそばへの挑戦のすべてで、岩手県のユニークな食べ放題そばのドンチャン騒ぎです。

The record: 345 bowls
I opted to try it at the Azumaya Soba Shop in Morioka, Iwate's capital city, which offers English-language menus.
You don't have to take the challenge.
There are regular set menus, including a kaiseki-style lunch.
But where's the fun in that?
The wanko soba challenge costs 3,240 yen ($31.80) and comes with nine side dishes, such as tuna sashimi, mushrooms with grated radish and other local specialties.
After it's all over diners get a souvenir -- a certificate and a plaque stating the number of bowls they ate.
Fifteen wanko soba bowls is said to be the equivalent of a single, average-sized bowl of soba noodles.
I thought my 33-bowl tally was kind of impressive -- till I looked at the stack of bowls next to the man at the table behind me.
He told me he managed to eat 111 bowls of wanko soba.
And he had the certificate to prove it.
As for the record, Azumaya's staff say someone once ate 345 bowls in one sitting.
[要訳]
記録は、345杯
私は盛岡の東屋蕎麦屋で試してみることとした。ワンコそばチャレンジ料金 3,240 円 ($31.80) と大根おろしと他の特産キノコ 9皿 おかず、マグロの刺身などが付属している。 それが終わった後には、お土産と証明書と食べた椀の数を表した記念の盾をいただく。
15 杯のワンコそばで普通のそば一杯に相当するといいます。 私の 33 杯の高さはちょっとすごいと思った ・・・・・ただ、後ろのテーブルに座った男のひとの重ねた高さを見る前のことだった。 彼は111 杯食べたそうだ。 それを証明する証明書を持っていた。 東屋の記録は、345杯だそうだ。

Wanko soba's rustic origins
The origins of this soba bonanza are a bit murky.
Azumaya Soba Shop's founders say it was born out of the region's challenging terrain, in the early 1600s.
Due to the high mountains and low temps, farmers in the area's Nanbu district relied on easy-to-grow soba -- buckwheat noodles -- for sustenance.
Because soba noodles were viewed as a rustic dish, they were embarrassed to serve it to nobility.
According to Iwate's tourism authorities, when a lord came to the town of Hanamaki to visit, locals reluctantly served him a just bite-sized bowl of noodles -- but accompanied it with a fancy arrangement of dishes.
He thought the noodles were so delicious he kept asking for more.
Thus emerged a tradition of serving soba in tiny bowls until guests were full.
As four centuries passed, it evolved into the wanko soba noodle challenge enjoyed in the prefecture today.
Eating competitions now are held in Iwate twice a year.
Iwate tourism officials say the defending Morioka champion -- a woman -- slurped back 383 bowls in just 10 minutes.
〇わんこそばの起源について述べているが、疲れたので訳は省略

（Wikipediaに掲載の説）
「殿様に対して市民と同じ丼で差し上げる事は失礼」との発想から、山海の幸と共に漆器のお椀に一口だけのそばを試しに恐る恐る出したところ、殿様はこれを「うまい」と何度もお代わりをした。その後明治時代になり花巻市の蕎麦屋「大畠家」が市民にもわんこそばを振る舞う様になり「お殿様の召上がったわんこそば」は市民の人気になった。