Lunch time, in the office.
On a personal level, I am opposed to the stir-fry-mix packages and just-add-water noodle bowls. I think it’s cheating. I *enjoy* cooking. It’s like… my hobby.
Okay. So Japan, meet Hobby. Hobby, this is…. what? Hobby, you don’t like Japan? Well, perhaps you just haven’t been properly introduced.
See. The thing is.
Judging by the standard restaurant fare, I think they eat noodle bowls and soup here at home, like all the time. So I’ve been wondering… how do they make the soup? How is it that everything in a restaurant taste so uniformly… good and healthy? Have I been doing it wrong? Is everything I know about “Asian Cooking” one big fat sake-induced lie created by the Food Network? perhaps. At first glance, it seems that the packaged fresh-noodle-and-sauce thing is where it’s at.
A recipe for finding your calm center, in the Japanese kitchen:
1. The ingredients may look the same, they probably don’t taste like what you remember.
2. Find vegetables. Vegetables, meet saute pan. Saute pan, meet noodles.
3. Pour soup mix and hot water over all of the above. Slurp noodles and drink broth from the side of the bowl.
