夏の麺料理 (Natsu no Men Ryouri) – Noodles for summer

26th July – 文月

In hot humid summer, we crave for cold food. Especially cold noodles are the best when we don’t have much appetite!

素麺 (Soumen)

素麺(soumen) is made from wheat, and it is less thicker than 1.3mm. Same ingredient but if it is more than 1.3mm but less than 1.7mm is called 冷麦(hiyamugi). Thicker than 1.7mm is the famous noodle, うどん (Udon).

素麺 is available in all season, however summer is the time when many people enjoy the cold 素麺. 素麺 is very easy to cook, as most likely it takes about one minutes to boil. Then put them in the water to make it cold, and it’s ready to eat. Dip in the めんつゆ (Mentsuyu – Japanese salty-sweet noodle base) and eat with veggies and meat, it’s perfect lunch for the hot summer time.

Especially in summer weekends, family might try 流しそうめん (Nagashi soumen) – pour water on the half-cut bamboo to shed soumen noodle and catch the running noodle by chopsticks. Locating a bucket at the end of bamboo is a wise idea not to waste 素麺 that people couldn’t catch.

In order to do 流しそうめん, there is a need to prepare for the bamboo, moreover have to break it into half. Therefore, nowadays fake half cut bamboo (plastic) is available in DIY stores just for 流しそうめん use.

冷やし中華

Another summer popular noodle can be 冷やし中華 (Hiyashi Chuka) – cold noodle with soy sauce or sesame base sauce. On the top of Chinese noodle, decorating with colorful ingredients such as veggies, ham and thin strips of egg omelette – the shape tend to imitate like Mt. Fuji.

Even the name has 中華 (Chuka = Chinese), 冷やし中華 was invented in Japan. It was inspired from Chinese noodle called 涼拌麺 (Ryan Pan Men) and mixed the style with Japanese noodle ざるそば(Zaru soba). In summer, many restaurants offer 冷やし中華 and it becomes very popular menu.

素麺 and 冷やし中華 reminds Japanese of summer, what is popular summer food in your country ?