Yakisoba with eringii and abura-age

Today, yakisoba, the Japanese version of Chinese fried noodles. Well, that’s my version of it… well, one of them. See others at the end of this post.

Yakisoba is fast-food normally. It’s often sold cheaply on street stalls, at festivals and the teppanyaki (hot plate) shops propose it too. The basic version is made mostly with :

-chuka soba (fresh Chinese noodles that are sold fresh and cooked, they look like thick spaghetti and if you have none, cooked thick spaghetti can be used)
-oil

That’s why we said it’s fried noodles, no mystery. And low amounts of :

-cabbage (cut in big squares)
-additional veggies (cut in thin slices), few and cheap ones (bean sprouts, onion, carrot, some kind of leeks…)
-a little raw meat (thin slices of pork), or cheap seafood, or ham…
-sauce (specific sauce or thickened Worcester sauce or a mix of Worcester + ketchup…), plus additional ketchup or mayo if you want
-pickled ginger, toppings…

My version uses what I have in my fridge, and it’s usually healthier.

So, I had abura age (fried tofu) as meat.

A few Eringi mushrooms as meat too.

I had a leftover of green papaya.

I first toasted the abura-age (fried tofu pockets), set aside. Then with a little garlic and ginger : onion, eringi mushrooms, green papaya, cabbage and shishito green peppers. To the veggies, I’ve added fresh Chinese noodles (chuka soba), sauce (Bulldog).

I’ve added the abura-age to the rest. I have about half of veggies, less than one third of noodles. That’s how I like it.

On top, a little more sauce, shichimi togarashi (7 spice mix) and cut green negi leeks.

Sara udon lunch

Sara udon with 3 greens.

空芯菜 kushinsai, water morning glory. It’s a South East Asia classic green. With the tropical weather we have now, they can grow it easily.

Green pea sprouts.

Kujo is the 9th Avenue, in Kyoto. They don’t grow them in the street now, but maybe 200 years ago. It’s one of the many Kyoto area original vegetables.

I’ve stir-fried ginger, onion, garlic, kujo negi whites and kabocha pumpkin. Then added ankake sauce. I’ve added the 2 greens at the end. That’s my sauce to pour on :

Sara udon.

First side : cabbage and cherry tomato salad, with sesame oil dressing.

Second side : silky tofu, to eat with soy sauce and minced greens of kujo negi.

Negi ramen

Today is noodle day… I often go to noddle restaurants, well, most are like bars. Some are great because they make it all, broth, fresh noodles, meat. I buy my Chinese noodles, but I can make the rest too.

The base is a miso soup with dry fish dashi stock and a few veggies (red Kintoki carrot and yellow paprika). It’s a bit naked.

Let’s see what topping we have in the dressing room…

Char Siu, Cantonese pork roast.

Lots of negi leeks.

And a chrysanthemum.

Banbanji noodles and young ginger

Roght season for cool noodles…

Chinese noodles (bought fresh), boiled and refreshed in iced water. Boiled chicken, cooled in its broth. The meat is very tender.

Fresh young ginger. I got a big bush of it. It is very mild and can be eaten like that without starting a fire in your mouth.

Gomadare, sesame sauce. The vinegar in it has a cooling effect too.

Great, I should do that more often.

Soba meshi : street stall rice’n noodles made healthy

Soba meshi, it’s noodle rice. You can eat that delicacy on street stalls around here. They make it on the teppan, the Japanese hot plate.
That sounds like a weird carb orgy. Actually that’s not bad if you do it with lots of good ingredients. And anyway, that tastes good !

It’s green no ?

As you can see, it’s brown rice. Noodles of course. There is also calamari, onion, carrot, cabbage. It’s a stir-fry.
The sauce is simply low-sodium soy sauce. Not on the photo, I added garlic, chili pepper, nira (garlic chives). And raw ginger as topping.