Yasai Yaki Soba

One of the first Recipe Book recipes I tried - well before this blogging project was even a gleam in my eye - was for Yasai Yaki Soba. I plucked this one out of the book early and with great eager delight as Josh's friends, Heather & Nat Godley, proclaimed it was from Wagamama's - a noodle restaurant so popular in London culture that even I knew to eat there during my semester abroad oh so many moons ago.

Also, obviously, Heather's name is Heather, so anything she recommends is going to be wonderful.

In the ensuing 15 years (did I just say that?), Wagamama's has since gone global (US locations in Boston and DC). And although I have yet to eat there whenever I go home (I'm too busy filling up on subs and seafood. And I forget.), I still remember Tracie's and my pilgrimage to Wagamama's in that winter of 1996 (oy) and how much we loved it.

So naturally, when I saw that the recipe with which Nat and Heather had gifted us hailed from Wagamama's, I didn't need a blog project to prod me into testing it out. Plus, it offered the fun of having to dig up and then use a bunch of exotic ingredients, such as mirin and rice vinegar.

Unfortunately, that first time I tried the Yasai Yaki Soba, the promise didn't quite meet up with the product. I don't remember exactly how or why, just that at the time making it seemed a pretty big undertaking, quite laborious, and the end result was not just disappointing but pretty flamboyantly so. In short, my memory of it was: gross.

Perhaps it is a mark of all the cooking I have done since undertaking this blog that the Yasai Yaki Soba came out okay this time. Luckily, not only am I a bit of a pack rat, but I stalwartly resist Josh's pleas to get rid of things (honestly, we have a predominantly empty attic, so who are we really hurting - other than Josh's back - when I beg him to lug things up there?). This means that I still had all the weird sesame oil type ingredients in the pantry, despite the fact that I likely have never used them since the previous ill-fated Yasai Yaki Soba attempt and the fact that until this project I held no illusions of attempting it again.

In any event, the soba noodles had blessedly fended off the repeated vermin attacks on the kitchen in their little plastic bag at the back of their cabinet, and the odd Asian oils were all in the cooking oil drawer just where I'd left them. Of course, Nat and Heather added some more spice by putting the ingredients in grams, which means that I not only had to use the kitchen scale, but actually had to put off the recipe a day when the odd-sized batteries in said scale died and I had to get replacement ones.

Not even Euro measurements could foil me this time, though. I got to use 3,400 bowls and my wok--and you know how much I enjoy using my obscure kitchen implements. Even though there are quite a lot of ingredients, the recipe seemed easy enough to put together. I have a feeling maybe I had trouble (aka 'messed up') mixing the topping and the seasoning and the sauce before - putting them in at the wrong time? Or maybe I didn't stir fry it long enough so there were egg issues?

I have no idea, but this time it all came out fine--if, it must be said, a little dull. Everything appeared absolutely as it should be--veggies mixing in, egg fluffing up in nice little eggie bits throughout the whole thing. All very Asian and proper looking. The overall flavor, however, was decidedly bland. And bland is not how I recall Wagamama's.

Is it possible the blandness is what I recall, and that I didn't screw it up, per se? But that my hopes given the Wagamama's name were dashed so cruelly it took on more mythic proportions in my memory than it deserved? Well, yes, but who cares?

The point is if you like very mild food, you can make this - your own noodly stir fry instead of the pre-packaged kind - this way and be happy. Or you can probably just double, triple, quadriploople the yasai sauce part and give it more zing. OR, if you live in London or Boston or DC, you can just take your ass out to Wagamama's, but then you'll have to share a counter with other noodle-eaters, and in these swine flu days that might not be so advisable.

Or maybe I've just got the dead taste buds of an old person and must only drink scotch and smoke cigars from now on.

A benchmark of culinary-skill-improvement? Maybe so. Maybe so.

Nat & Heather's Yasai Yaki Soba a la Wagamama's

200 g cooked soba (buckwheat) noodles
2 tbsp oil to stir fry

for the topping:
30 g shredded carrots (i.e., about 2 carrots)
30 g thinly sliced green or red pepper (i.e., about 1/2 pepper)
2 eggs
2 sliced shitake mushrooms

for seasoning:
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt (kosher!)
1 tsp mirin (which, if you are wondering, is a Japanese cooking wine)
a few drops of sesame oil

for the yasai sauce:
1 tbsp mirin
1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
a few drops sesame oil
1 tsp each finely chopped red and green peppers

to garnish:
sesame seeds
1 spring onion (aka green onion aka scallion), finely chopped

Take out soba noodles from years-old package. Contemplate weighing them, but realize you only have what you have left so just boil 'em up.

Enjoy preparing all the ingredients and putting them in separate bowls like on a cooking show. Discover that 30 grams of shredded carrots is about 2 carrots and 30 grams of peppers is about a half a pepper. Feed the remaining carrots and some of the remaining pepper to the dog, who likes peppers, do you have a problem with that? Nonetheless, have a ton of pepper left over. I mean, really, cutting into a red pepper for just 1 tsp of it? Isn't that a little wasteful?

Learn how to 'reconstitute' dried mushrooms since the only kind Josh could find were dried. Learn that this means 'dump mushrooms in bowl of warm water for 20 minutes,' which is far less intimidating than the word 'reconstitute.'

Put the cooked noodles, topping, and seasoning ingredients in a bowl and mix with your hand. Crack the eggs and mix thoroughly, which is gross.

Meanwhile, ask Josh to put the rest of the peppers and other leftover veggie bits onto the grill with the green beans he's making lest they just rot in the fridge. You love the earth so, you get your green-friendly responsibility crown tonight, self.

Heat oil in a wok to stir-fry the ingredients. Debate which oil to use: should you use the sesame oil? No, because that appears to just be for seasoning. Should you use peanut oil because this is Asian? Maybe. Decide to go safe with boring canola oil. Safe.

Have Josh hover over you, offering to make sure you have lids and baking soda at hand in case you try to set fire to the kitchen again, and worrying that you have stepped away from the stove for 2 seconds.

Put the mixed ingredients into the hot pan and fry until golden, which is kind of a misnomer because those noodles are brown and ain't nothing going to change that. Determine that 'golden' means 'until the egg fluffs up into nice little eggie specks throughout.' Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon.

Combine the ingredients of the yasai sauce and taking the pan off the heat when golden, mix the sauce in with the noddle mixture. Then turn the noodles out onto a plate and garnish. Isn't 'turning out' what one does to young prostitutes? Just saying.

Heather & Nat note: This is a recipe from my favorite restaurant in London. It's really easy once you get the ingredients and makes a fun 'date night' meal if you can't go out for dinner!

Heather & Heather note: I'd recommend playing around with upping the yasai sauce quantity on this one to make it more flavorful. Then again, I am someone who likes to drown my food in sauce and routinely drinks salad dressing (sad, true). However, as Josh added Tabasco to his serving, I stand by my assessment that this recipe can stand more sauce.