Iron Chef Series 1: Soba Noodle Mar 29 '01    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The Bottom Line One of the most famous Japanese cuisine, Soba. Do you know how to cook? You have watched the "Iron Chef" on Food Network. People there are the experts. I once tried the dish by the Iron Chef French, Sakai, and found it's simply impossible to reach his level. So, in this sense, the title of this article is pretty much misleading. Sorry. But, Hey! You don't have to impress the entire world. For more than 99% of readers here, impressing the family is good enough. Why don't you become an Iron Chef Japanese (in your block....) What is written here? In this article, I introduce the simplest way to prepare Soba noodle. The Soba noodle is brown/gray color Japanese noodle. It's made from Soba plant. If you don't know what Soba noodle is, go to any kind of Japanese restaurants. They usually serve Soba noodle. There is another type of Japanese noodle, and it's called Udon. Udon has the cream white color. The difference between these noodle is in the original plants. Usually, Udon string is much thicker (in diameter) than Soba. Of course, they taste differently, and the textures are different. But the ways to prepare these noodles are the same. If you like Udon better than Soba, just apply the method below to Udon. It works fine. Before jumping into the discussion, let me remind you that I am not trying to train you as a professional restaurant chef. If you want to be, you need to read at least 3 thick books. Soba noodle is one of the most famous Japanese food. The most famous one is SUSHI. If you are looking for the information on sushi, please check my article on sushi. It's located under the traveler's glossary category. I couldn't find this strange category "What Should You Know About Japanese Cuisine?" until a couple of hours ago.... The exact location is: http://nyscramble.epinions.com/content_1095999620 How To Eat SUSHI : The Traditionally Stylized Manner Before you start cooking Soba noodle is served in two ways. One is served "in" the hot soup. The other is served "with" the iced soup (or sauce). In this case, you dip Soba noodle into the iced soup, right before your bite. The iced one is more common in summer time. (Well, you can be creative, and fry/grill Soba noodle, if you want. But it's not common.) In either case, the preparation is almost the same. If you want to serve Soba as a cold dish, you have to put the soup in fridge, or add iced water. The main difference is in the thickness of the soup (or sauce). If it is for the cold dish, you should make the soup thicker, because you just dip Soba noodle, and don't drink the soup part. Here, I assume you want to serve it temperature hot. (For the way to serve as a cold dish, see the additional parts.) Also, to make my life simple, I introduce the simplest way. The things you have to prepare before start cooking are: For 4 servings: * Soba noodle : 4-6 bundle (One package of Soba noodle comes 4-8 bundles.) * scallion : 4 * soy sauce : 4 table spoon * bonito powder (called "dashi" in Japanese) : 3 table spoon * Japanese sake (alcoholic beverage) : 1 cup * salt : a little * water : 6 cups (for soup) You can find dried Soba noodle at the international corner of your supermarket. If you don't find, try China town. Due to the small demand of Soba noodle in the US, the price varies a lot. If you are lucky, it costs only $0.50 for one serving. But if you live in remote area, one serving might cost you about $2. The bonito powder is a little more challenging to find. If you don't see one at your supermarket, try an organic store. Of course, you can find at China town very easily. Bonito powder is pretty cheap. If you are not a big Japanese fan, the life long supply of bonito powder costs $10 or so. It doesn't go bad even for a few decades. Let's start cooking! The cooking part is divided into two. One is the noodle part. The other is the soup part. Let me start with the noodle part. noodle Regardless to the type of Soba noodle, either dry or raw, you have to boil it. Depending on the type of Soba noodle, the boiling time varies a lot. Usually it's somewhere between 3 and 15 min. It's much shorter than pasta. Read the instructions on the product package, and follow the direction. They key is in using a plenty of water to boil Soba noodle. It absorbs more water than you might be expecting. After finishing boiling Soba noodles, take them out from the boiling water, and put them into the hot soup. (The way to cook the soup is right below this section.) You are already ready to serve the dish. If you want to serve as a cold dish, rinse them well with a water. The cold tap water is fine. In this way, the texture of Soba noodle gets tight, and you can enjoy the Soba-ly taste and texture very well. You don't have to put them into the fridge. soup Boil the water first. Then add the soy sauce, the bonito powder, and Japanese sake. Wait a couple of minutes until the alcohol part of Japanese sake completely evaporates. Done! :O) Too simple? Okay, let me explain a little more. There are two things you should consider in cooking this soup (or sauce). One is the color, and the other is saltiness. The best part is that you can always adjust. If you want Soba noodle to sit in the darker brown soup like a black hole, add more soy sauce, and boil the soup another couple of minute. If you like lighter color soup, add more water, and keep boiling until the temperature gets high enough. As for the saltiness, you can use either bonito powder or simple salt. If you love fish-type saltiness, add more bonito powder. If you like plain saltiness (to die from high blood pressure), add more salt. Of course, if you feel the soup is too salty, add more hot water. It works fine. They key is the volume of water. If you prefer darker color and more saltiness, you can always keep boiling the soup and let the water evaporate. Even if you keep boiling the soup for an hour, the soup doesn't get ruined. (It's a different story if you burn up the entire thing.) Keep tasting all the time, and find the best match to your preference. For the cold dish, you should make the soup (or sauce) very thick. Prepare it, and put it into your fridge. It doesn't go bad for at least a couple of weeks. In serving the dish, add the cold water, and adjust the taste. Let's serve the dish! If you prepare a hot dish, put the Soba noodle into the hot soup, and sprinkle the chopped scallions on the top. You can make this fancier by adding boiled spinach, boiled carrots, minced yam, tempura, and so on, on the top of the Soba noodle. For the cold dish, serve the Soba noodle, the sauce, and chopped scallion separetely. When you eat, put the scallion into the sauce. Pick up a small amount of Soba, and dip it into the soup right before you eat it. Additionally Believe it or not, the Japanese Mrs. Manner recommends us to make BIG sounds in eating Soba noodle. Eating Soba noodle like a 20 year old vacuum cleaner implies you are really enjoying the dish. Of course, this is not the case of other Japanese food. The most popular situation for Soba noodle for the Japanese is the new year's eve. With Soba, we wish the long-lasting life and happiness. In my case, I usually take less than 15 min to finish the entire job. (The most of the time is for boiling the Soba noodle.) The Soba noodle is very easy to prepare. And it's difficult to go extremely wrong as long as you don't boil the Soba noodle too long or too short time. To make things better, it's very easy to impress the people in the US. Why don't you try Soba noodle next weekend, and become a renowned Iron Chef (in your block....)?

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