cold soba noodles

If you live in a climate controlled world, you can eat one food throughout the year. You might choose pizza. Pizza is round. Or you might choose a hamburger. Hamburgers are also somewhat round. If you wanted to be totally outlandish, you could choose salad, and there, in your constant world, you could be quite happy as the temperature of the air, squat like a stone Buddha, never changes. But that does not sound fun at all, you say. Thank you, but no thank you. Please return the weather to me. I miss seasons.

Every year, as soon as it begins to get somewhat warm, I bust out the cold soba noodles. You see, when the air outside starts to get warm, and the air inside starts to get hot, who wants to make it hotter by putting a shit load of pots on the stove and a roast in the oven? Not many people. Cold soba noodles heat one pot of water. The vegetables are raw and raw foods exude no heat.

The trick is to get yourself a cheap, japanese mandolin. You can get one for like 30 bucks, maybe 40. Without one, you cannot make that glorious, thin julienne of carrot, so thin it matches the diameter of the noodle - and that's what you want. Go buy one right now.

As for the salad, use whatever raw veg you like (scallions, shredded cabbabge, watercress, carrott, bean sprouts, etc) and dress them simply with a little sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, some soy sauce if it suits you, some hot sauce if that suits you. Basically, whatever you like. For the noodles, cook them (about 8 minutes), plop them into a colander, run cold water over them to chill them, and drain them and dress them with sesame oil and soy sauce. That's all there is to it. It's gorgeous and healthy. Peace.