Time for some noodles! (ヌードルの時間やで！)

Well. Today, dear readers, we are trying a new vein entirely.

That's right, it's cooking time with Edo.

Whip out your aprons and jaunty chef hats, everyone; we're about to hit the kitchen.

On the menu today is the seasonally appropriate...

ざるそば　(zaru soba, chilled soba noodles with dipping sauce)



Ok, so, technically, NOT ざるそば, as we are not all supplied like 和食 (washoku, Japanese food) restaurants, and thus do not have fancy-schmancy bamboo draining baskets to put our noodles on (and thus no ざる).

No, we commoners just plop them right in the bowl and slurp 'em straight like the peasants we are.

Ours will probably look a lot more like this:



a la コンビニ (conbini, convenience store). Minus, you know, the neat little plastic tray.

...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let's see how decently I can mimic a cookbook format, shall we?

So, ingredients.

- soba noodles (as much as you'd care to prepare)
- one half-sheet of nori (give or take)
- soba tsuyu (basically, soba sauce, we'll talk about it later)
- scallions (to taste)

First, you want to boil some water, and cook the soba noodles to your desired doneness. There should be a minute guesstimate on the package somewhere--even if you foolishly bought a package that only has instructions in a language you don't understand, it's a safe bet they stuck with the Arabic numeral system, so just look for something along the lines of "7-8" and make your assumptions from there.

Once they are done, remove the noodles from the boiling water IMMEDIATELY and run them under some cold water. The best way to do this is by using a strainer or colander of some kind, and having an assistant dump the noodles in for you so you don't strain your poor back.

Now, you can keep running them in cool water until they chill down enough for your tastes, but I'm impatient, and usually put my noodles in a bowl of ice water. It works wonders, though I'm sure that traditional chefs are scoffing at me as I speak.

While you're waiting for your noodles to cool down, start fixing up your tsuyu. Now, you can make this stuff yourself (recipe provided here, at the very nice Just Hungry blog), but I prefer to just buy it from the store. Because, hey, it's right there, and pretty darn tasty. (Admittedly, you will need an Asian supermarket, or even better, a Japanese supermarket, for this to work.) If you're going to store-bought route, check your bottle. If it says ストレート or straight, you shouldn't need to water it down (though I would do a little taste testing before you go dousing your noodles in the stuff), and honestly, I've never seen the other kind, but make sure you check. The last thing you want it a pile of ruined noodles because you put the super-duper heavy-duty concentrated stuff on.

Now, you can fix your tsuyu one of two ways: the first is to make a "dipping dish," and place your tsuyu and toppings in a small bowl to dip your noodles in as you eat. Traditional, yes. Messy and more dishes for you to clean? Also yes. However, if you are a soba newbie, I would recommend this method, as you're probably not yet certain how much tsuyu you want. Pour some tsuyu out into your designated dipping dish, then take your nori, fold and cut it up into small slivers (I like kitchen shears for this), and either wait to place it on top of the noodles for maximum crunchiness, or place it in the dipping dish if you're only after the flavor and can live without so much of the texture. Do the same with the scallions (finely sliced), if you care to; I never do, and always gave my little scallion packet to Debs when we got out cheap コンビニそば.

The second way is to fix your tsuyu a la コンビニ. Wait until your noodles are cooled, drain them THOROUGHLY (you don't want any water in there diluting flavors), then just dump the desire amount of tsuyu right on top of your noodles (this works best if you're using a bowl.) You see why I don't recommend it for beginners? The worst part is that the tsuyu disappears under the noodles; you don't really know how much you have except by memory and guesstimation. Again, cut up the nori (and possibly scallions) and sprinkle them on top of the soba. Unless you're serving it to others, prettiness is not an issue.

Now, if you're using the "dipping dish," eating can be a little messy, especially if you're not too skilled with the chopsticks (hmmm, maybe I should re-think recommending it for the newbies...). Take a mouthful of noodles, dunk them into your tsuyu concoction, then slurp away. (Yes, you slurp your noodles in Japan; it is considered polite, and if you don't, people think there's something wrong with you. I know this from experience.)

If you're using my lazy, no-muss-no-fuss method, however, no preparation required. Simply enjoy!

Now, this is, of course, my way. I don't claim that it is the best way, just the way that works for poor little ol' me in my American environment. Other options include the recipe at Just Hungry, the blog I linked to above (linked to again here for your convenience), this one at the Splendid Table (which actually seems a bit pretentious and Western-centric to me, but whatever), or this rather cute one at Web Kids Japan. If you find my recipe lacking in any way, please, feel free to get a second opinion, but do be good enough to leave a comment telling me first. Otherwise, I'll never learn, will I?

This is Edo, signing off whilst fondly remembering sitting on the steps of the Umeda station, slurping コンビニ bought soba and drinking 爽健美茶...