Soba Time

I decided on a minimalist meal for lunch today. Its not that I was feeling lazy and not wanting to cook up anything spectacular, it's just that for some reason (probably from watching too much Gintama) I was craving the simple Japanese dish of Kake Soba (hot soba noodles, in soup with scallions). After cooking the soba noodles to an aldente state, I made my soba soup using a pre-made soba dipping sauce. I did not really use a standardized recipe, but simply eye-balled all the ingredients (I'm slowly becoming more like Rachel Ray) and seasoned it to my personal taste. I added some water and soy sauce to the pre-made dipping sauce, mixed in some granulated sugar and minced ginger, and brought the whole mixture to a boil. Once the soup boiled, I added in the chopped scallions and turned off the heat (I didn't want the scallions to start wilting on me). I placed servings of soba noodles in each of the bowls, and topped the noodles with some sliced nori, julienned green onions (julienned carrots would have been a nice addition) and sesame seeds. I slowly poured the hot soup over the cooked noodles, and lunch was ready to be served.

To get more information on soba noodles, and a few great recipes check out Just Hungry. This site has a ton of great information specifically relating to Japanese cuisine.