Monday rainy day lunch at home — pulled out the home-cooked beef udon again. The project of getting our home version closer to Tamoya Udon’s sanuki-style profile has been ongoing for weeks, and we’re getting closer each attempt.

We made:

Sanuki-style udon (fresh, vacuum-packed)
Thin-sliced beef
Soft-boiled egg
Dashi broth (homemade)
Chopped scallion
Tempura flakes (tenkasu)

Tamoya is the Japanese chain in Singapore that does sanuki-style udon — thick, squarish, properly chewy noodles made fresh on-site daily. Their dashi broth has a particular profile: clear, faintly amber, with a kombu-bonito depth that rounds out into a slightly sweet finish.

We’ve been trying to nail their broth at home. Today’s attempt was the closest yet.

The dashi base was the project. Cold-soak kombu in water for 30 minutes, then heat slowly to just below boil, remove the kombu. Add bonito flakes, steep for 5 minutes, strain. Season with light soy, mirin and a touch of sake. The result was the kind of clear broth that lets you taste each separate flavour layer.

Udon noodles (vacuum-packed fresh kind from the asian grocery) blanched briefly to loosen, drained, into the bowl.

Beef was thin-sliced ribeye (the sukiyaki-style cut), quickly cooked in a separate pan with a sweet-soy glaze (soy, mirin, sugar, a touch of sake). Slightly caramelised edges, tender inside. Laid over the udon.

Soft-boiled egg halved beside the beef. Tempura flakes (tenkasu) sprinkled on top for that crispy texture and umami pop that Tamoya’s bowls always have. Chopped scallion over the whole bowl.

Hot dashi ladled in last so everything stayed at the right temperature.

The result was close. Not Tamoya-identical (their on-site noodles still have a different chew), but the broth profile was right.

Lockdown cooking projects make for satisfying iteration.

Overall: 4.4 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Closer-to-Tamoya home udon — keeping the practice.

Original IG post