Hot Days, Cold Noodles

Slurping is encouraged!

I'd be perfectly content surviving the summer on a steady diet of chilled watermelon and cold noodles, especially of the Korean mulnaengmyun or Japanese soba variety.

I've tried my hand at making tsuyu, or dipping sauce, from scratch; but I'll be honest and say I actually prefer the taste of bottled. Blasphemy! It is also beyond convenient for those days that you can barely summon enough energy to lift a pan of water to the boil.

We continue to try a variety of soba noodles and aren't married to a single brand just yet - do you have a favorite? We like to enjoy ours with lots of fresh scallions, shreds of dried seaweed (nori/gim), grated daikon, wasabi and of course, an ice cube or two thrown in for good measure! For perfect soba noodles, we cook ours for 4 minutes exactly and rinse under cold water immediately after until it's cool to the touch. Great chew each time.

What is your favorite summer meal? Keeping cool yet satisfied is a lot harder than it looks!