Cold Soba Noodles with Sweet Walnut Dipping Sauce

My husband is from Nagano, the heart of Japan’s soba country. His hometown has many soba-ya (soba restaurants), and every family member has a favorite. Mine is Kusabue, which serves kurumi soba, cold noodles with a sweet dipping sauce enriched with walnut paste.

This is a micro-regional dish, essentially unknown outside the area. The sweet and nutty dipping sauce (a mixture of tsuyu, walnuts, and sugar) is a perfect counterpoint to the cool soba