Buckwheat noodles in hot dashi topped with a slow-simmered herring fillet, a Kyoto specialty born when sea fish was salted and dried for the inland capital.

Nishin soba was created at Matsuba on Shijo Street in Kyoto in 1882, when chef Tokichi Matsuno paired buckwheat noodles with simmered herring brought salted up the Saba Kaido. Pre-railway Kyoto had limited fresh fish access, so dried Hokkaido herring (mi-bo-shi) was soaked, then slowly braised with mirin, sake and sugar over hours until the bones softened. The dish became the city's reference dashi bowl, and remains the canonical Kyoto soba order on the menu of every traditional soba house.

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