#japanese noodles

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 Ichiha in Nishiki Market, Kyoto: matcha soba with mountain vegetable, bamboo shoot and grated mountain potato, and soft-served matcha ice cream on three kinds of Japanese tea flavored caramel popcorn (matcha, houji-cha, and genmai-cha). The two small wooden cylinders aside are spices: shichimi (七味: Japanese seven spices) and sansho (山椒: japanese pepper)

I found mild konbu-majored dashi for the soba, which is often used for noodles with mountain vegetables (could be different in Kanto region). The soft-served ice cream with caramel popcorns was part of lunch set and smaller size, yet a bit too much for me after having soba. You can buy those caramel popcorns either outside the restaurant or on Kyoto Daimaru department store’s underground floor. Especially the genmai-cha flavored has a real refreshing roasting aroma of genmai (brown rice) and ryoku-cha. I personally recommend gennai-cha flavor the best (and I have never seen the flavor at any other shops).

Nishiki Ichiha’s menu with pics
https://nishiki-ichiha.com/menu.html

Nishiki Market
A street lined with around 130 shops selling food. You can take a stand-up meal at some shops.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishiki_Market

錦市場にある錦一葉の山菜とろろ抹茶そばとポップソフト（ミニ）。茶蕎麦のお出汁はあっさり昆布出汁。山菜系のうどん・そばではよく見かける（関東はまた違うのかも）。ポップソフトは抹茶ソフトの下に、抹茶・焙じ茶・玄米茶の三種類のキャラメルポップコーンが入っている。ミニだけど、ごはんの後だとちょっと多い。中でも玄米茶ポップコーンは玄米の薫りが香ばしくていちばん美味しい（ついでに他所で見たことない）。店前や大丸地下で買える。玄米茶ポップコーンは個人的におすすめ。

Hokkaido miso vegetable ramen at a miso-ramen specialty shop. Cabbage and bean sprouts, deep-fried onion, cooked minced pork, and wedges (fried potatoes) on top. The soup was thick, nourishing and not too salty. Quite good against my expectations. It was night and Japanese “new music” in 80s’ was kept played, which confused my sense of time. An once-in-a-lifetime ramen. Even no other chance to pass by.

味噌ラーメン専門店の北海道味噌野菜ラーメン。滋養を感じさせるこってりした味だが塩辛くない。期待していなかったが美味しかった。夜、80年代ニューミュージックがずっと掛かっていて時の感覚が狂う。一期一会。もう通りがかることもない。