Somen Salad

Have you ever had somen? Somen is a Japanese cold noodle dish served with a light dipping sauce or soup, veggies, fishcake, nori and egg, etc. Delicious to eat on a hot day, especially when you ice the noodles! 

Here in Hawaii we are lucky to have Japanese restaurants and Asian grocery stores that sell it already made or made to order. I recently went shopping at Marukai (Japanese membership grocery store) and they had (get ready for this, somen lovers) a SOMEN BAR:

 
 

Marukai - Somen Salad Bar!

Oh my yum. They had udon too.

Then on another day I went to "Aloha Sushi" for just that, sushi. But then I saw somen salad on their menu:

Aloha Sushi's Somen Salad

Did I get some? I plead the 5th. 

There's also another version you can make to feed a large crowd (or a small one with a big appetite!)but instead of dipping the noodles into the sauce the sauce is poured on top of the salad. It's quite popular here in Hawaii and you often see it at potlucks. I made it awhile back and it did not last long:

The salad kind of fell apart when I put it in the bowl but you get the idea!

There are tons of recipes for somen salad floating around on the web but I make mine much like Jessica at Zakka Life does (one of my new, favorite blogs!) She even posted pictures of the ingredients - which is helpful if you are unfamiliar with any of them. The only thing I do differently is add sliced Japanese cucumbers and nori (missing from my picture). So instead of posting my recipe here I will link to hers. Oishi desu! (Delicious!)