28: Fried tofu udon (Page 100, Easy Japanese Cooking)

Today was spent recovering from yesterday. Not that a lot of drinking went on. But melon vodka cruiser does look a little radioactive. So today was really quiet, I just stayed at home watching episodes of Gilmore Girls and shopping for ingredients for my Japanese cooking . Shopping for ingredients proved to be a bit difficult.I spent an hour looking for hondashi and dried fish stock. I thought they were the same thing. So I pick up this little powdered box that tells me that it is bonito dried fish stock. I though cool now all I need is hondashi. So I rush home to google it to see what it actually was and then I see a picture of the exact box that I had bought. So I was confused. Were they the same thing? Then I flick through the book and find a recipe for dried fish stock which is made from water, kombu seaweed and bonito fish. This wasn't my only shopping confuson either. There were so many different types of soy sauce. How does soy sauce differ from soybean sauce or Japanese soy sauce? In the end I gave up and purchased some this bottle of sauce that said shoyu on it but when I went to open it smelt sort of alcoholic and I didn't want to stomach it. So my day turned out a little more eventful then I thought it did.

I often miss my time in Japan, I want to go back to Japan. I miss the atmosphere and the buzz I got from it. Mostly I miss the food. So I decided to do some Japanese cooking in order to calm my food cravings. The thing I love about this easy Japanese cooking book (despite its typos) is that the contents page consists of photos of all the dishes. So if one was really lazy they would not have to flick through all the pages to see which one looked the most appetising. First on the list was tofu udon. The last time I made udon noodles I overcooked them until they become bloated. But this time they were perfect. All the effort it took to make my own dried fish stock was worth it. And I added my mum's red peppers to it so it was the perfect mix of spicy and salty. It made the tofu taste fantastic. I can't wait to have it again tomorrow. It was pretty yummy. And the tofu can be replaced with tempura or fish cakes. So I will definitely try that next time.

I did have a nasty surprise though, I had the stock boiling away and then I added the hondashi and I was pouring it out onto the tbsp over the stock and I lost control of the pouring out and the hondashi fell into the pot and the water just boiled straight over the sides bubbling away. Like a catalyst experiment gone wrong. I think now that all the hard work is over, eating leftovers will be so much more fun!