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 :

Fresh somen

The most refreshing food ever invented ?

A hot Summer Japanese lunch.

Somen :
These thin white wheat vermicelli are cooled and served in iced water.

Somen and tusyu (cool soup).

Toppings : Negi leeks, sesame, pickled ginger.

Cubes of firm tasty momen tofu.

Konnyaku sashimi with a vinegar miso sesame sauce.

Fushi, hand-pulled noodles and su-no-mono (via gourmande in Osaka)

This is called fushi, it’s hand-pulled noodles that can be added to soup and hot-pots…

Click here to continue.

Shako ebi : somen chilled vermicelli and Summer shrimpettes

These small grey and pink shrimps are shako ebi from Hyogo (prefecture of Kobe), Oratosquilla oratoria in English. It’s season now. They remind me of the small grey shrimps of the North Sea.

Well, I say shrimpettes because I don’t want to frighten readers too much. But they are to shrimps what Godzilla is to whales. It seems it’s a cross between a shrimp and a mantis that eat its male. Read here.

I simply boiled them and ate them still warm.

Deliciously fine.

Fresh ginger (more about it soon).

Chilled somen wheat vermicelli. To eat dipped in tsuyu broth.

Serial udon (Japanese white wheat noodles)

Refreshing cold miso soup with somen noodles and nameko sticky mushroom

This is really delicious and that makes you forget the heat and humidity. What is left ? Superb blue sky and great weather.
Nameko are those orange sticky mushrooms. I already showed you some :

Nameko the sticky/jelly mushroom

This time I have huge ones :

And you can see that “glue”. When they are boiled that becomes a jelly :

Serve them very cold !

About mushrooms… This is vegan dashi. Dashi is the Japanese all-purpose stock, made from dry fish and seaweeds. You can make a plant based version with shiitake mushrooms. I keep the feet (too fibery to eat) of fresh mushrooms and let them dry. You can also buy dried feets here.
Vegan stock :
Take 2 medium size dry shiitake, or 5 feet. Break them a little. Put in a pan with 1 liter of water. Bring to a boil. Let cool.
You can re-use the mushrooms for a second infusion. And then eat them.

Then I prepared the soup in a mortar. Sesame seeds, crushed, grated fresh ginger, grated fresh wasabi, white miso, a little black rice vinegar and vegan dashi (very cold).