Soup/Stew

Soba noodle soup is one of my favorite lunch dishes.

Growing up in Japan, I ate a lot of noodle soup for lunch.

One of the reasons was that I was a huge noodle fan, but when I was old enough to use the stove, noodle soup was one of the easiest to make myself.

You may be wondering why it’s named Fox.

When you add this fried soy bean curd, we call it Fox (or Kitsune in Japanese).

They say it is because Fried bean curd is fox’s favorite food or/and it has the color of fox’s fur.

You cook the curd in soy sauce based sweet broth first before adding to the soup.

And green comes from this beautiful seaweed, called “Aosa.”

My sister recently visited us from Japan, and she brought it for me.

It’s dried seaweed, and it’s crunchy as it is, but when you add it to soup, it quickly becomes softened and you can enjoy a different texture.

I like mine with a sprinkle of this Japanese spice called “Shichimi.”

Ultimate comfort food for sure!

I’ve been always a big noodle person, and I’m always up for good noodle soup.

Remember this  Japanese black bean tea?

I had extra tea and beans kept in the freezer, and I thought it would be interesting to make them into a soba noodle dish.

I did add some stuff to the tea to taste more appropriate as “soup,” but I also made sure that the tea flavor is still there to be enjoyed.

I had cooked Kanpyo (dried shavings of calabash) and decided to make Kanpyo roses for garnish.

I hope everyone had a good start of the week.

Okay.

I know I’ve been talking about spring on it way for a while.

But this week it really finally feels like spring is coming VERY SOON.

The weather forecast says we are going to have temperature finally above 50!!

So excited.

However, today it’s still below 32F in the Twin Cities, and this hearty noodle soup is very appropriate.

Various vegetables (Napa cabbage, carrots scallion, etc.), tofu, and seitan meat were slowly cooked in soy sauce based slightly sweet broth.

For this particular dish thick chewy Udon noodle is a great choice.

You can always enjoy this without noodles like soup as well.

Have a great weekend everyone.

If you are following this blog for a while, you probably know that I like Matcha.

These green tea soba noodles.

Its color and flavor are just wonderful.

Green tea noodles in soy-based broth, served with grated nagaimo, fried onions, scallion, and Shichimi spice.

Oh, and wasabi.

Wasabi goes so well with grated nagaimo.

Simply delicious.

Tsuke-men is like a cousin of ramen.

It’s basically the same thing, but the noodles and the soup are separated (soup typically has a bit stronger flavors).

You scoop up a few strands of noodle, dip them in the soup, and eat. And then repeat the process.

I added a generous amount of sprouts.

I love sprouts in my ramen/tsuke-men.

Tsuke-men is becoming pretty popular, and I’ve started seeing it on the menu of some ramen shops.

But I’ve never seen vegan Tsuke-men yet.

For extra spiciness here is my trusted chili garlic paste.