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Udon is very famous Japanese noodles but kenchin-jiru is not known by many foreign people. Kenchin-jiru is a kind of soup which is made with some vegetables and is like a vegetarian cuisine. Taro, radish, shiitake mushroom, burdock, carrot, deep-fried tofu and konnyaku potato fried with sesame oil are the ingredients in kenchin-jiru as shown in the picture. The soup is light because soup stock is not used. It is based on Buddhist cuisine but the udon contains chicken. The reason why many root vegetables are contained in kenchin-jiru is that they have increased the nutritive value during autumn and winter. The other one is katsudon usually served with udon.
