Image: Wikimedia Commons
Italian is a fast food that originated in Niigata City, consisting of sauce-flavored yakisoba (stir-fried noodles) topped with tomato sauce or meat sauce. Although its name evokes Italian cuisine, it is actually a Niigata-original local specialty that gives Japanese yakisoba a Western-style twist. It is said to have been devised in 1959 by Mikazuki Haruzo (三日月晴三), the proprietor of the sweets cafe Mikazuki (三日月) in Niigata City, inspired by sauce yakisoba he had eaten in Tokyo. The name comes from borrowing the image of spaghetti and making it a dish eaten with a fork. Today, two chains are known as its leading representatives: Mikazuki, centered in Niigata City, and Friend, centered in Nagaoka City. Each has its own character in sauce, garnish, and way of eating — Mikazuki, for example, serves tomato sauce with white pickled ginger, while Friend serves meat sauce with red pickled ginger. Since it can be enjoyed casually for a few hundred yen, it has long been loved as a soul food of the people of Niigata Prefecture.
Origin
Its creator, Mikazuki Haruzo, was the third-generation president of Mikazuki (三日月), which started as a coffee shop in Furumachi, Niigata City. In the late 1950s, while attending a study group for business owners in Tokyo, he ate sauce yakisoba at Nakabashi (中ばし), a sweets cafe in Kyobashi, which is said to have sparked the idea. Hoping to attract more customers with meal offerings, he turned yakisoba into a spaghetti-style dish topped with sauce and eaten with a fork.
History
Italian was devised in 1959 and added to Mikazuki's menu the following year, 1960. Mikazuki Haruzo and Kimura Masao (木村政雄), the founder of Friend in Nagaoka City, were close friends who had met through the study group, and are said to have shared the experience of eating yakisoba in Tokyo. Following Mikazuki, Friend devised its own flavor and launched its Italian in the 1960s. In 1972 (Showa 47), the company changed its name from 三日月 (written in kanji) to みかづき (Mikazuki, written in hiragana).
Features
Its base is yakisoba seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, generously topped with tomato sauce or meat sauce. Mikazuki serves a sweet-and-sour sauce of slowly sauteed onions and tomatoes with white pickled ginger, and it is basically eaten with a fork. Friend serves a meat sauce rich with the savory flavor of ground pork and spices, accompanied by red pickled ginger, and it is eaten with chopsticks. There are also variations topped with curry sauce or white sauce.
Main Ingredients
Food Culture
Italian has developed with different favorite shops by area — Mikazuki in Niigata City and Friend in Nagaoka City. In recent years, each has been opening stores in the other's home territory, making it easier to compare the two companies' flavors.
Famous Shops
みかづき 万代店
新潟県新潟市中央区万代1-6-1 バスセンタービル2F
A branch of Mikazuki, the originator of Italian, located on the 2nd floor of the Bus Center Building in Bandai. You can enjoy the original flavor — onion and tomato sauce with white pickled ginger — from around 440 yen for a regular portion.
View details →フレンド 喜多町店
新潟県長岡市喜多町字鐙潟572
A standalone Friend store in Nagaoka City, known for introducing a drive-through in 1976, one of the earliest in Japan. Its Italian with spicy meat sauce starts at around 390 yen for a regular portion, and pairing it with gyoza is also popular.
View details →| Mikazuki's Italian (frozen) | A frozen version of Mikazuki's Italian, which can be ordered from the online shopping site Niigata Chokuso Keikaku (新潟直送計画). Medium-thick yakisoba noodles are topped with tomato sauce and white pickled ginger, and you can enjoy the restaurant's flavor by heating it in a microwave. A pack of 3 costs around 2,810 yen (shipping included).Where to buy →PR |
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FAQ
Q. Where does the name 'Italian' come from?
A. It was named because its creator, Mikazuki (now written みかづき), likened yakisoba to Western-style spaghetti, topping it with tomato sauce and serving it to be eaten with a fork. It is not Italian cuisine but a yakisoba dish born in Niigata.