What Gaijin Eat: Nameko Soba

Today's lunch was a traditional Kevin-Tomoe household meal. When I asked Tomoe, the cook, for a comment, she said, "It was just awesome.I loved it."

Ingredients:

Dried Shitake Mushrooms. Dried mushrooms are a traditional base for soups in Japan. Tomoe decided to add it it today's soup because it is said to be good at helping the body dissolve, or "melt", fats from meats. (Tomoe attended a friends wedding yesterday where the main dish was steak. At the same time, I as eating pork ramen with my sister who was visiting - her one food request of the trip.)

Since neither Tomoe or I eat meat, she thought that the shitake might, at the least, do a little good in getting rid of the heavy, sickly feeling we both had lat night. Even if it doesn't, it still tastes great.

Macrobiotically speaking, shitake are apparently very "yin". If one desires a "yang" substitute, try dried daikon (big white Japanese radish). But keep in mind, as shitake are dried, the "yinness" is said to be minimized as the "yin" water is replaced by the "yangness" of the sun.

Regardless of "yin-yang", there are apparently studies (which I am too lazy to look up) that say that dried shitake is good because vitamin D increases when the mushrooms are exposed to sunlight. This helps to fix calcium to the bones. Macrobiotics also claims that it helps to relieve headaches and muscle-aches.

Nameko mushrooms (fresh). These add a wonderful sticky texture to the soup. When I asked Tomoe about these, she said that the ones she used have long stems and are grown on logs, more like "natural" nameko. "Normal" nameko, found in most supermarkets, are grown on wood pulp and packaged without stems.

One reason for the difference in types of nameko is related to packaging and shipping. The head-only mushrooms can be easily put in a bag and sold as-is, while the long stem form must be plucked and marketed as a a bunch with the stems intact (and connected to each other). This takes a little more workwhich means it is less efficient, and therefore BAD BAD BAD! Right?

Konbu seaweed from Hokkaido. Nothing special to tell you about this except that it is very "yang" (and ding-dang tasty).

Komatsuna (organic). This is a green leafy thing. I love it because it is cheap and ding-dang TASTY!

Soba. Of course the main ingredient was soba noodles. The soba we used for this was fresh, not the dried kind (of which we eat our fair share). The main difference is that when cooking, the fresh ones become gooey and the broth thickens. Its dang good.Surprisingly , the price is pretty much the same as dried noodles (when purchased at the coop we use) but they are not always available, so today was a bit of a treat.

Abura Age. Thinly sliced, fried tofu.

Nama Shoyu ("raw" soy sauce). The difference between nama shoyu and regular shoyu, is that nama (which means "raw"), has not been heated (or had alcohol added) to kill the natural yeasts found in it. While nama shoyu is much more flavorful, it also has a shorter shelf life (depending on where you store it). Of course, the flavor of any soy sauce changes within a year, and this one only costs twice as much - $10 vs $4 for a year supply.

Onion. Adding onions to soba broth is abnormal in Japan, but Tomoe cooked the onions well before adding them, bringing out the sweetness in order to round out the saltyflavor of the soba noodles without using sugar or sweet sake, as is often used.