Oh how life has changed with D, the little (chubby) bundle of joy, now in our lives! It has been a very long while since I last cooked and of course that causes the posts to lag behind! I’m terribly sorry my dear friends! Nonetheless I did manage to whip up a quick lunch for myself while home with the bub one afternoon and it was a rather ‘spur of the moment’ lunch – just putting together whatever I had available in the kitchen and lo and behold I had myself a bowl of Japanese noodles. I love how sometimes you don’t start out wanting to achieve something but end up pleasantly surprising yourself.

The Japanese are real genius when it comes to food and something as simple and humble as noodles turns into a story waiting to be told. Tsukimi Soba – Buckwheat Noodles with Poached Egg, literally means “Moon-Viewing” Soba, how cute is that?! The egg is likened to the moon! There isn’t any other soba dish with such a quirky meaning! While the word ‘poached’ may scare some people, I’d better confess now that I actually did not poach my egg in the hot soup as most Tsukimi Soba recipes say you should, I actually half-boiled my egg *giggle*. Ok less talk let’s get crackin’!

Tsukimi Soba 月見蕎麦 (Buckwheat Noodles with Poached Egg)

Serves 2

Ingredients
170g of soba (buckwheat noodles)
2 eggs (room temperature)
2 tbsp/ 30ml soba sauce concentrate
1½ cups/ 300ml water
A sprinkle of thin strips of Nori 海苔 (seaweed)
Negi (Green Onion – finely chopped) – optional

Equipment
2 medium saucepans
Chopsticks/ Fork (to prod noodles while cooking and for assembling)
Slotted Spoon

Method
1. Place eggs in a saucepan and fill with water to cover eggs by 1cm.
2. Bring to boil over medium heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer and remove eggs after 2 minutes for soft runny eggs. ¹
3. Set eggs aside.
4. Discard egg water and fill saucepan with sufficient water to boil soba.
5. Once water boils, add soba. Cook until al dente (about 7 -8 mins).
6. Meanwhile place soba sauce concentrate and water into the other saucepan and bring to a boil.
7. Place soba in a bowl. (You may use a fork/ chopsticks to twirl noodles into the bowl.)
8. Pour hot soba sauce over the noodles and crack the soft boiled egg on top. Garnish with Nori and Negi. Serve.

Notes
¹ Use same cooking method but respective timings for desired egg-doneness:
2 minutes – soft and runny eggs
3 minutes – whites just set, yolk creamy
4 minutes – white and yolk perfectly set, yolk centre creamy
(Adapted from Women’s Weekly)

Where to Buy

Soba/ Buckwheat Noodles – I’ve been able to find these in most supermarkets like Cold Storage and FairPrice Finest. Isetan Supermarket and Meidi-ya would definitely sell them.

Nori/ Seaweed – also easily found in most supermarkets. I’d get the ones that come in thin strips so it’ll save you the trouble of shredding.

Negi/ Green Onion – now this is quite specific and can be obtained from Isetan Supermarket, Cold Storage at Takashimaya and Meidi-ya. Alternatively you can just use spring onions/ chives.

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