Soba is the Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour and traditionally associated with New Year’s Eve.
Soba noodles may be served hot in broth or cold with a dipping sauce. Buckwheat gives them a distinctive earthy flavor and gray-brown appearance, although many commercial varieties combine buckwheat with wheat flour for strength.
On New Year’s Eve, many people eat toshikoshi soba, whose name means “year-crossing soba.” The long noodles are commonly linked symbolically with longevity and with leaving the old year behind.
Soba differs from udon, which is a thick wheat noodle, and from somen, which is a very thin wheat noodle. Buckwheat content can vary, so not every noodle sold as soba is made entirely from buckwheat.