Comments on: Cha-soba To Go

By: Rowan

Rowan — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 22:28:04 +0000

Sorry that was meant to be “suspicious looking papadum” ,but it’s servicable.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:06:22 +0000

Go Rowan! I hereby officially incorporate the phrase, “looking papadum” into my lexicon.

By: Rowan

Rowan — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:57:32 +0000

I knw I’m lat to writing this, but I’ve been loving the seies of breakaway recipes I’ve foudn recently, I’ve gone so far as to take my food technology course from Japanese to breakaway Japnese, borrowing fromy our recipes and making my own changes too. this dish reminds me of 3 or 4 years ago when i was lucky enough to visit Japan as well as celebrate my birthday there. I’d been walking around tokyo the entire day and looking papadum with nori topping served as a “vegetarian pizza” had only made me and my father more hungry than before. Returning to the apartment of a friend we were staying with I was lucky enough to get to try Cha-soba for the first time then, and since then I’ve been interested in using maccha as much as possible in anything i can. THis is another great recipe I’d like to try, O-cha biscotti having a nice flavour and depth to it, but still not quite living up to the itialian versions.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:51:50 +0000

Thanks Em — you know, it sounds like there are a lot of flavors going on, but not really. It’s just simply sauted veggies plus a simply dressed cha-soba (my dressing might sound fancy, but it really isn’t — it’s just a good, tangy dressing). I came up with it in the same way I come up with everything: all those ingredients were what I had on hand!

And hello toriiiii! Goddess food indeed — we’ve got to get you more into matcha.

By: Tori

Tori — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:02:04 +0000

I’ve been yearning for bottarga for weeks!!

Soba always strikes me as goddess food, cha-soba all the more. I can’t completely explain it, but I always find eating it a pure, yet edifying, experience.

By: Em

Em — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 06:11:00 +0000

What a fancy bento!
Yeah, I can’t quite imagine the taste since there are so many flavor elements in the dressing. I’m also curious to know how you came up with it.

I’ve had zaru style cha-soba a few times in Japan. It’s so simple, yet has elegant flavor I think.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:50:54 +0000

Yes Victor, you indeed must drop what you’re doing and march back over there to get some cha-soba!

Another killer use for cha-soba: bottarga (dried mullet roe, which sounds god-awful, but is in fact one of the most umami-laden foods in existence), just microplaned on, perhaps with a simple dressing.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:46:23 +0000

Karena — the dressing was born the usual way: I was just staring at what was in front of me. This was years ago though: greek yogurt has been my go-to ingredient for salad dressing for eons; it really binds things well, adds a touch of creaminess yet keeps it light. The pickled ginger “brine” is really just slightly sweetened (with honey) raspberry ginger infused with the flavor of ginger. It’s unbelievably tasty. This is reason alone to make your own pickled ginger: the uses for it are endless.

By: Victor Ortiz

Victor Ortiz — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:14:46 +0000

Now you have done it! I spent three weeks in Japan, this summer. In that heat, soba was sugoi! But, I never had cha soba. Now, I have to go back; even if Nijiya has it on hand. It is the principle of the thing.

Now, I got that out of my system, your idea with the dressing sounds great. August might well be accented by cha-soba. Cool, tasty, refreshing, and easy on the GI system.

Thanks for the ideas, now I need to make a trip to Torrance.

By: Karena

Karena — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:16:23 +0000

I luuuurve cha-soba! On the three days a year that San Francisco breaks 90 degrees, I live off of chilled cha-soba mixed with soy sauce, shredded nori, and sesame. Sunset Super on Irving carries it for about $4 a package.

Can I also ask how you came up with the dressing? I never would have thought to mix Greek yogurt, olive oil, pickled ginger brine together (and be confident that it would taste good).