Summer Somen

Last night I was feeling lazy and sluggish and not really up to a lot of cooking. So we had a simple meal of cold somen (Japanese noodles made out of wheat flour) and some dumplings. The different somen colours make the dish look a little more elaborate, but it was really quite simple to prepare, as the somen noodles were so thin they cooked almost instantly.

And yes, we are still in the Olympic colour food theme... actually, it was really not my fault. I was at City Super last week, and lo and behold, in front of me were bundles of multi-coloured somen in green, yellow, pink, purple and black (actually white-ish but the label said it was black tea flavoured). How could I possibly resist? It was too perfect. I was hoping the black somen would be darker, but it was creamy with tiny black flecks.

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I served the somen on two smaller plates, plus the remainder on a larger plate. We each had a little bowl half-filled with Yamasa brand tsuyu (sauce) to dip the somen into. It was tasty - a little more salty than Yamasa's tsuyu for soba. I'm guessing it's because somen is thinner than soba and has less taste per mouthful, so a saltier sauce gives the somen more flavour. It was just right to eat on a warm summer's evening.

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