#demae

    A Tokyo soba noodle delivery in 1956. BETTMANN / GETTY IMAGES

   A soba delivery man in Marunouchi business district in 1959. THE ASAHI             SHIMBUN / GETTY IMAGES

“DURING THE EDO PERIOD, WHEN the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled Japan, Edo, the capital and what is now modern-day Tokyo, grew to be the most populous metropolis on the planet, with an estimated 1 million inhabitants. When societies industrialize, food systems have to adapt. Enter the demae, or delivery men, who braved the streets of Edo balancing towers of dozens of piping hot meals on their shoulders to feed the hungry masses. (…) Cheap, filling, and nutritious, soba and udon noodles were the preferred foodstuff of the proletariat. A skilled demae could carry dozens of packed soba lunches at once. ‘Bicycles hadn’t been invented yet, so they would carry these soba trays and bowls in baskets that were hanging down from a pole that they would carry on their shoulders,’ Kapur says. ‘These guys were fast. They would jog through the streets to get the food where it was going while it was still hot. When bicycles did come into the picture around the turn of the century, they revolutionized the industry. By that time, Tokyo was sprawling, so there was more ground for demae to cover. ‘You want the noodles to still be hot when you arrive, so speed is of the essence,’ says Kapur. ‘In a lot of cases, they would be carrying lunch to one entire company, so that’s why they’re carrying maybe 20 or 30 portions together.’”

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