I had to make a run into downtown St. Paul to drop one of our bikes off at the doctor, so I figured I'd swing by my favorite Asian market on the way home and collect the makings for tonights' (and many other nights') meal.

As I told you a month or so ago, I've been craving udon like a bansheee so the fixings for that were topping my list along with a restock of my Pad Thai supplies and a bunch of other stuff I always seem to need but can't get in my neighborhood.

I haven't ever made udon at home for some reason but now that I have, I'm certain it will be on winter rotation (if not all year) because it takes all of like ten minutes total and it's so, so satisfying, plus it's healthy as heck and I don't have to go to the mall to pay $12 for a bowlful. Even Boy loved it, and he's typically not a brothy kind of soup eater. He slurped up the first spoonful and said "ohhhhh this is GOOD!"
Duh.


I really wanted it with shrimp tempura but I was too lazy to go on battering and frying just a couple of shrimps so I went with some very thinly sliced hangar steak instead, tossed into the broth at the last minute so as not to overcook, and the requisite pink fish cake slices that make what is a very simple dish look exotic and curious.
I was loosely following a recipe in one of those cookbooks you buy at the bookstore on the bargain table that are about specific kinds of foods...this one is just called "Noodles". But really, you don't need no stinking recipe for udon. Just dashi and soy and mirin and sugar and noodle and whatever you like for protein, garnished with some green onion and chili salt and you're pretty much done.
The recipe said to just dump in some beaten egg at the end and give it a second to cook, but I didn't do that either because I wanted it the proper way, like Japanese omelet, and I was too lazy to do that. So egg it wasn't. I also added fresh enoki mushrooms and bean sprouts because I like a little fresh crunch in there.
So there you have it. A nice steaming hot bowl of udon and a perfectly delicious WFDW.



Oh yea.

Do I need to tell you about all the Pocky I bought while I was at the market, or that I ate like four packs of it on the way home and then had two more just now for dessert?

Five kinds, including the jumbo pack of my favorite, chocolate almond, aka "crush". Here's betting it will all be gone by the end of the week. Except maybe for the "mousse" variety in matcha flavor. The flavor is nice but the texture is bizarre, which I assume is why it's called "mousse".

But holy crap do I love Pocky.