A lady in front of me in a line to the register had a pack of udon noodles in her basket. It read:
うどん・手打ち式
How much buzz is there in such a phrase? Is it comparable to using 手打ち風? Or could it have some merit to it?
Also, I assume that a real hand-made udon makers would simply write 手打ちうどん. Please correct me, if I am wrong.
Answer
Basically, we are talking legal hype here.
「[手打]{てう}ち[式]{しき}うどん」 (= "handmade-style udon") is just the best-sounding and most-appealing name to the consumers that you can legally give to machine-made udon.
If the udon were actually handmade, it would definitely be named 「手打ちうどん」 without using 「式」 as you stated so that its naturally higher price would effortlessly be justified.
「～～式」 is a terribly vague "suffix" describing what style/form/origin a product or service represents. Most consumers would be aware of the inaccuracy of the description in their heads, but it gives us a certain level of comfort and appeal that is enough to make us feel that it might actually be close to the real thing.
「～～[風]{ふう}」 is one step even more vague and unreliable. It would only appeal to those who know close to nothing about the real thing. I often order the 「ミラノ風ドリア」 at Saizeriya because I like how it tastes, but not because it tastes like doria made and served in Milan. I have never even been to Italy! From that name, however, I just "know" that the dish must be pretty much a Japanese (or Saizeriya's) creation.
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