Somen Bento

Today YH didn't need a bento, so it was just for me. I was feeling a bit lazy, so I ended up making this super easy somen (wheat noodle) bento. There's no cooking involved at all, apart from boiling the somen noodles. I was quite pleased as I finally got to use all 4 tubs of my Cinamaroll bento set.

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The somen noodles I used are purple in colour as they are flavoured with yam, but any type of somen would be fine.

Directions:

Boil water in a saucepan, then add the somen and stir the noodles around for 1 - 2 minutes until cooked. As somen is very thin, they cook very quickly. Then rinse the noodles in cold water and wash them gently until all the starch has been removed.

To make up the bento, put the somen noodles in one container (for easier eating, cut the noodles into shorter strands) and half-fill another container with some somen dipping sauce (tsuyu). If you like, pack some shredded nori (seaweed) in a small separate container (to keep the nori from getting soggy). Add the nori on top of the noodles just before eating. For a bit of vegetable and variety, you can pack a simple salad of crabstick and lettuce - this is very good dipped into the tsuyu as well.

Don't forget to add ice-packs to keep the somen bento fresh if you are planning on leaving it outside in warm weather. Another option is to leave it in the fridge, and take it out 10 minutes or so before eating.

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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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