soba

I have been on a little bit of a vegetarian kick around here lately. Making humous regularly, eating more vegetables than meat, for me makes me a weekend vegetarian. I am by no means vegetarian nor am I implying that refraining from eating meat at any meal throughout the day can make me a vegetarian I still feel 'vegetarianist' when I do it.



Soba, or Japanese buckwheat noodles, is a very popular dish in Japan. Served both hot or cold, it is considered polite to slurp the noodles loudly. I eat a lot of soba when I am feeling vegetarian. I use it like ramen, I use it like fideos I mix it up. I sometimes heat it then cold shock it and eat it like cold sesame noodles with a spicy peanut sauce. The ideal way is the simple way. Cook the noodles quickly as they cook quick, remove them from the hot water and shock them cold rapidly,sloshing around to rinse the starch (crucial) remove from cold while still warm if possible and serve with chopped green onion some sesame oil and a little side of miso soup and some soy sauce. Most times soba is served cold in the summer but I like to try and keep it a little tepid to warm - thats just me and my idiotic lack of conventions.