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Zaru Soba With Sake Dipping Sauce

Zaru soba is one of my favorite things to order when I see it on the menu at Japanese restaurants. I loooooove nooooodles. This authentic recipe from Nami, the cook behind Just One Cookbook, calls for:

• dried soba noodles
• sake
• mirin
• soy sauce
• kombu (dried kelp)
• bonito flakes (katsuobushi)
• finely shredded nori sheets
• green onions
• Wasabi (optional)

You can probably find most of these ingredients in the “ethnic” section of your grocery store. Mirin is a sweetened rice wine used for cooking. Kombu is dried kelp, and nori is the type of seaweed that comes wrapped around your sushi rolls. Bonito flakes are thin, dried flakes of a variety of tuna. They add an umami flavor to recipes, in the same way as anchovy paste or a ham hock.

Soba noodles are usually made of buckwheat, but they come in other varieties. You can use any other type of asian noodle for this dish, or even use regular old angel hair pasta. The noodles will be delicious, because it’s really all about that base. Add more sake to the dipping sauce before serving if that base is not boozy enough for you.

A Bowl of Sake

Another serving option is to add some liquid (water, veggie or chicken broth) to the dipping sauce until it tastes like something you’d actually eat with a spoon (as opposed to just briefly dipping your noodles in there). Heat it up to soup temperature, then add more sake to taste.

Put your noodles in bowls, and top them off with the hot, boozy broth. Sprinkle on the zaru soba toppings. When I was 12 years old, I accidentally ordered this very dish when I was at a fancy-yet-short-lived East Hampton Japanese restaurant. I have no idea why the waiter let me order what was basically a giant sake-soy cocktail with noodles. I’m guessing he hadn’t tried the dish. I did not like it, because I was 12. Wish I could go back there now!