Soba

Soba is a grain crop known as 'buckwheat' in English. It is best known for the noodles that it is made into, also known as soba. Soba is one of those words for which there was no suitable Chinese character available, only the compound word qiǎomài. As a result, the word soba is written 蕎麦 in Chinese characters. While seldom seen, this sometimes appears on menus, as on the following menu outside an upmarket restaurant in Tokyo.

Ran-uchi kamo-jiru seiro soba Ran-uchi duck-soup seiro soba

For the most part, however, soba is written in hiragana, as in the following sign.

Yaki-soba. Fried noodles.

A Google search revealed the following pattern of usage (August 2003):

Soba

Yaki-soba

See also yaki-niku, yaki-tori.