COUNTRY COOKING: JAPAN

This week we chose Japan. David Chang from The Mind of a Chef (Netlix feature) spends a great deal of time talking about all the noodles of different Japanese regions. We couldn't decide on just one - we knew we wanted to eat Udon noodles, but we wanted to try Tsuke-Men style (dipping noodles). So that's what we did. And it was an ingenious collaboration. 

There, unfortunately, is no one recipe that we followed for this meal (typical Bacon-style cooking for ya!). But because this meal was so beautiful, I do want to give a glimpse into what we did!

Noodles, broth, and spices. That's as simple as it gets. Something felt primitive about this recipe (I always wondered what recipes actually called for the neck bones I would see in the meat section!) - it was intriguing.

We boiled the fresh Udon noodles and set them aside in a "community bowl". We picked these up at a local Asian market (...actually, we learned that people travel a LONG way just to come to the Japan marketplace here in Edgewater).

The broth was the most time consuming part of this recipe. This is David Chang's recipe for the broth that we followed, here.

The meal prep and set-up was what was different (and FUN!). It was so simple actually. Each person will have their own bowl of broth and will add noddles from a community noodle bowl into their bowl to soak "as-needed".

In each personal bowl, we added (I must note that all the following ingredient amounts are personal preference!):
- A spoonful of garlic, chili paste, thinly sliced jalapenos/Serrano peppers, and thinly sliced ginger.
- 1/4 cup of white vinegar.
- Handful of plain steamed broccoli and bean sprouts.
- 1 small head of bok choy.
- 3oz meat (taken from the broth).
- Fill the bowl with chicken broth.

Dip the noodles into the broth and enjoy!

These meals are becoming the highlight of my week; I already have our next country planned. If you missed last week, you can find our exploration of Paella here!