Sanuki udon

The very firm dough is traditionally kneaded by walking on it inside a bag; that gluten work gives Sanuki udon its trademark bite, the koshi. Kagawa has counted more than six hundred shops for a million people, often self-service canteens where you pick your bowl, your tempura and your broth before paying at the exit. The prefecture’s dry climate, poor for rice, favoured wheat: the dish was born of an agricultural constraint.