Rei-kishimen, fresh noodles for a tropical lunch

We are now having a nice Summer weather, as during official Summer, we were inside a sauna. So it’s ideal to lunch with rei men (chilled noodles) and enjoy hot weather fruits.
You don’t see the noodles ? It’s because they are hidden under.

They are kishimen, a type of flat udon particularly popular in Aichi, the region of Nagoya. (read more)
Served cold, they remind some white Chinese noddles they serve in Pekin’s streets.

Salmon slices ready for sashimi (it has to be frozen, don’t forget if the fishmonger didn’t do it).

Ceviche : I just covered with kabosu citrus juice cut at 50% with water, kabosu zest, a little sea salt. Let only a few minutes. The more you wait, the more your fish will be cooked.

My grandma’s technique to cut parsley thinly (yep, with scissors).

4 layers :
-a bed of grated cucumbers and minced parsley, slightly salted and later pressed to get out excess water
–kishimen noodles, boiled, refreshed in iced water
-onion slices (salted, let, rinsed) and kikuna chrysanthemum greens
-salmon kabosu ceviche

Mix and you have a very fresh salad meal.

Dragon fruit and litchis for dessert. Natto-wasabi as a side :

White waterfall (konnyaku noodles, shirataki)

糸こんにゃく (itokonnyaku) or しらたき(shirataki). They are noddles made of konnyaku. Shirataki means white waterfall as that’s what they look like. And who doesn’t want to eat a fresh mountain torrent in this season ?

Myoga, a veggie related to ginger. Delicious raw.

The noodles are sold in bundles that can unfold or not if you want to cook them in a hot pot. I simply rinsed them in cold water.

That’s a food without calories and it’s popular in the West some diet extremists. I don’t eat konnyaku in order to stuff my face without getting the calories. The food is appreciated in Japan for its texture and the lack of flavor that allows you to match to any flavorful food. A perk is konnyaku fiber favors smooth digestion.
These noddles, served chilled are very refreshing.

The tsuyu (dip sauce : dashi broth + soy sauce + mirin) with grated daikon radish. All the flavor comes from it so the tsuyu has to be coarse. I added green yuzu slices and the myoga.

Natto with mustard.

A small gaspacho.

Bought black gomadofu (black sesame tofu). You can make yours (recipe). This one is sweet. I served as dessert it with a yamamomo berry.

Mitsuba mushroom kimchi ramen

A quick lunch, using as usual season produce. It’s just a stir-fry of chuka soba (Chinese noodles).

With konnyaku (cut in cubes), chicken liver, stalks and leaves of mitsuba, kimchi, white mushrooms…

That makes an interesting mi of flavors, textures, rawness, cooked feeling, spiciness.

Tsukemen (dipping noodles)

つけ麺 tsukemen, that’s noodles unseasoned (often chilled) served with a tsuyu (dipping soup). As that’s much lighter than noodles served in the soup, it’s a common Summer dish.

Chuka soba or ramen (Chinese noodles). I buy them fresh and cooked, but they need a refreshing. I pass them 1 minute in boiling water, then refresh in ice water. And serve. That changes totally the texture.

Fresh traditional style miso. I’ve used it for the onion miso tsuyu

It’s very simple. I cut 1/2 onion, grated 1/4, added very little water and cooked till onions changed of color, added the miso and iced water to refresh.

Garnishing items : goya (sliced bitter squash), mitsuba leaves, cut negi leeks and abura-age (fried tofu). It’s Kyoto style abura-age, delicious just like that.

Island fish, somen chilled vermicelli and rape blossoms…

A slice of tai (seabream)cooked nearly like a dessert, with warm cake flavors : vanilla, almond… Chilled noodles. Greens. Natto. That makes a hot day lunch.

I first stir-fried the renkon (lotus root, sliced) and onion (sliced), put them aside. Then in the same pan, the fish with a little bit of star anise, salted. In a cup, I mixed saffron, vanilla powder, water, a pinch of sugar. 1/4 ts of potato starch. I’ve added to the fish when it was cooked, turned 2 or 3 times while reheating on low heat. I finished with a few drop of almond oil.

Steamed na-no-hana (rape blossoms) with sesame seeds.

Somen : thin wheat vermicelli. It’s boiled, refreshed in fresh water and served in a bowl of iced water. Next to it a dipping sauce : dashi (fish broth), black rice vinegar, onion et soy sauce.

Another little side, natto with nira (garlic chives) and onion.