Summer Vegetable Somen is cold Somen noodles with summer vegetables like okra and tomato. The sauce is also cold, simple Mentsuyu poured over the noodles. This easy to make cold noodle dish is perfect on hot summer days. Even when you don’t have much appetite on a hot day, this will cool you down and give you good nutrients and energy.
Curry Udon is hot Udon noodles in a curry soup and is one of the popular items on menus at Udon restaurants in Japan. These hearty noodles are loved by a lot of Japanese people even though it is not really like the more traditional clear Udon soup. From time to time, especially in colder months, everyone craves the warmth of rich and heavy flavors of Curry dishes, like Curry Rice and Curry Udon. Although making authentic Curry Udon is not as simple as just replacing rice with Udon, it is quite easy to make restaurant-style Curry Udon to serve at home.
Bihun is fried rice vermicelli with meat and vegetables. It is very much a home cooked dish in Japan, not something you can get at restaurants. Although rice vermicelli is not originally part of Japanese cuisine nor used in much other than Bihun, this fried Bihun has become one of the ordinary dishes that people often eat, like Yakisoba.
Instant Ramen (インスタントラーメン) with Vegetables is an easy and tasty noodle soup absolutely anybody can make. Instant Ramen has such a distinct flavor of its own, and it is hard to recreate it from scratch, so we don’t even try. And it’s funny how we all have cravings for various foods, but this is the big one for many people in Japan. We don’t eat instant Ramen everyday, but we also crave it time to time.
Hiyashi Tanuki Udon is cold Udon noodles with a cold sauce and Tenkasu, fried Tempura batter crumbs. It is very refreshing but also satisfyingly rich from the Tempura crumbs. Hiyashi Tanuki Udon is a great dish during summer when you don’t want to make complicated dishes in a hot kitchen. If you have your Mentsuyu (a multi-purpose sauce) and Tenkasu handy (especially in a bag), the hardest part of the cooking is done.
Ramen is a very popular noodle soup in Japan. Ramen noodles are originally Chinese style noodles, but they have changed and evolved to become a favorite Japanese food over many years. There are millions of Ramen restaurants in Japan, from old neighborhood Chinese restaurants, to Ramen street carts open late at night, to slick and modern Ramen specialty shops in cities. Those Ramen cooks all work so hard researching and testing to develop their very own original flavors for the noodles and soups of Ramen. Because there are a lot of Ramen restaurants out there, the competition among them to be popular or even to survive is brutal. But once they win the battle, customers won’t mind waiting for hours for their Ramen.
Shippoku Soba is hot soba noodle dish with various toppings. It is often on the menu at Soba noodle restaurants in Japan, but not seen as much at Japanese restaurants in the US, since it is a more regional Japanese food. Shippoku Soba can be eaten at any time of the year, but you can try it as Toshikoshi Soba which is the famous noodle dish for the end of the year in Japan.
Having lived in Kansai areas where Okonomiyaki is famous (which uses a sauce similar to Yakisoba sauce), Yakisoba with sauce is a more typical and familiar kind – or even the only kind – for us. But, there are a lot of different versions of Yakisoba and Shio Yakisoba all over Japan. Many regions have created their own Shio Yakisoba using local seafood and vegetables, but it seems like the dish is gaining more attention nationally in the last decade or so. When you make it at home, because there are so many varieties, there is no right or wrong for what ingredients to use. We wanted it to be very simple here and used only a few things – pork, bean sprouts, and green onions. If you like more vegetables, however, go ahead as you wish! Just adjust the amount of salt and other seasonings because more ingredients means diluting the taste.
Chuka Men for Yakisoba is usually sold as packages of fresh noodles in the refrigerated section at Japanese or some Asian markets. Each package of noodles (often one square) is for one serving, and sometimes comes with Yakisoba seasoning powder. The seasoning powder is a convenient thing and doesn’t taste bad, I admit, so you may opt to use that as your Yakisoba sauce. For people who do not have access to any Asian markets at all, dried spaghetti can be used instead of Chuka Men. Similar to what we did in Ramen, boil dried spaghetti in boiling water (2L) with baking soda (2Tbsp), and cook according to the package. You may not want to use fresh pasta because it may be too soft to stir fry after boiling. We know it is not exactly the same as Chuka Men, but it can be a pretty good substitution for those who cannot get Chuka Men. Get all the ingredients ready, fry them together, and enjoy your own Yakisoba! (When you are using spaghetti or other kind of fresh noodles which doesn’t require water to loosen while cooking, omit water in the recipe.)
(Also, we recommend using a non-stick pan to make Yakisoba to avoid noodles getting stuck on the pan.)
Nabeyaki Udon is an Udon soup dish that is cooked and served in an individual clay pot. It is this signature clay pot (nabe) that gives this dish its name – Nabeyaki.
Miso Ramen (味噌ラーメン) is Ramen noodles in a Miso based soup that was created in Japan in the 1960s. Ramen noodles are originally Chinese style noodles, but it’s been changed and improved over the years, and evolved to be our own food. And Miso Ramen is the pinnacle of “Japanese” Ramen noodles, the king of all Ramen.