I’ve been craving somen since the late-spring weather has really been warming up lately. Here’s a somen bento lunch that I had recently. I used my trusty two-tier Totoro bento box. The left side contains a shredded cucumber, a crunchy-style umeboshi plum, and one bundle of somen noodles, cooked and drained. In the middle you can see a shredded carrot, chicken breast, simmered shiitake mushrooms, and shredded usuyaki tamago (thin omelet). On the right is the cute lid to my bento box, and at the top is a separate container with the somen tsuyu, or cold dipping broth. The sauce is made using the dipping sauce recipe for “Thin Noodles on Ice” in Washoku.
I liked the sauce and noodles, but I haven’t yet mastered usuyaki tamago. I also made a half batch of simmered mushrooms, but forgot to reduce the sugar and soy in the simmering liquid, so they were much too strong. Luckily, I’ll have plenty more chances to perfect my hiyashi somen toppings because summer has not even begun yet.
Awsome bento box!!!!!