#japanese lunch

Picked eggplants and mini tomatoes at backyard, so made a hiyamugi noodle with it.

Microwave chopped egg plants covered with plastic wrap, then cool and squeeze water. Chop mini tomatoes. Mix them with shredded myoga, grated ginger, mentsuyu (soy-sauce-based ready-made dipping sauce for Japanese noodles), and sesame oil. I recommend to make a little bit stronger with concentrated mentsuyu and water (I had only straight one so adjusted stronger with usukuchi soy sauce, shirodashi, and mirin).

Put noodles into boiling water. Recently, I just happened to know it doesn’t boil over if you cross long chopsticks on the pan. Boil for five minutes, cool and wash with cold water, and strain well.

Put noodles in a glass bowl and add the seasoned egg plants and mini tomatoes with sauce.

Somen or Hiyamugi
http://www.mitoku.com/products/pasta/someofhiyamugi.html
The noodle diameter is somen < hiyamugi << udon. Somen and hiyamugi are mainly for summer.

Mentsuyu recipe
http://www.japanesecooking101.com/men-tsuyu-recipe/
In case if you live where you cannot obtain mentsuyu at supermarket.

Myoga (flower buds of a certain kind of ginger)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myoga
Summer herb, or fresh condiment. It’s often used as topping for tofu, miso soup, and many other dishes. It might taste peculiar for the first time, but it’s essential for Japanese summer cuisine. Though I hated when I was little, now it’s my favorite.

庭で茄子とミニトマトが採れたので、ぶっかけの冷麦にする。

切った茄子をラップをかけてチンし、冷まして水気をしぼり、刻んだ茗荷とおろし生姜、麺つゆと胡麻油で和える。麺つゆは希釈タイプで濃い目に作った方が良い（ストレートタイプしかなかったので薄口醤油・白だし・みりんで少し濃い目に調整）。茹でて冷やした冷麦と和える（鍋に菜箸を渡しておくと吹きこぼれない、ということを最近知った）。

Lunch at “Nishiki Agaru” near Nishiki Market, Kyoto. Nicely arranged tiny colorful cups called “nozoki” are so cute, which I never use at home (…too many to wash, you know).

The restaurant was a renovated Machiya, traditional merchant’s house, and had a beautiful small inner garden deep-inside with fresh green of Japanese maple, which we enjoyed just next to our seats. It was good to make a reservation earlier.

Kyomachiya Nishiki Agaru (Japanese)
https://www.google.co.jp/amp/s/s.tabelog.com/kyoto/A2601/A260201/26025527/top_amp/
You can also bring foods you bought at Nishiki Market in (They will serve them on dish). Better to make reservations especially for weekend lunch.

Machiya
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiya
Kyoto’s Machiya is especially called “Kyomachiya”.

Nishiki Market (japan-guide.com)
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3931.html

錦市場ちかくの「錦上ル」で昼ごはん。きれいに並べられたのぞきが可愛いらしい、が、家では全然使わない（洗い物が増えるしな；）。

細長い町家の奥座敷には紅葉の青がきれいな坪庭。早くに予約しておいて良かった。

京町家 錦上ル
http://nishikiagaru.jp

京町家
https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/京町家