Japanese people can eat a bowl of noodles in just five minutes. That's because they don't chew. Real noodle connoisseurs know that the taste of the noodle is felt in the throat, not the tongue, so to appreciate the true flavor of noodles, you must swallow them whole. I wonder how the stomach feels about this.

Noodle-eating technique can be observed by walking into any udon shop in Japan. These shops typically possess an air of tenseness in which people are huddled down over their bowls busily sucking up noodles. People don't talk much in udon shops. Eating noodles requires your full attention. In Kagawa Prefecture in Shikoku, people eat four times as much udon as people in other parts of Japan. "Sanuki udon," as it is called, is sold in over 1,000 shops, and many times you can make it yourself at self-service udon restaurants. I recently spent some time in Kagawa observing noodle-eating techniques. I've recorded my observations here along with my own method for successful noodle eating, which I call the Hoover Method.

Suction. Pause and size up the noodles, giving them your full attention. When you've finally attained a Zen relationship with your noodles, you can begin the process of movement from point A -- the bowl -- to point B -- your mouth.