Yakisoba

[ttoommyy]

Mark Bittman has a short article, recipe and video about yakisoba on the NYT web site:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/din...

The gist of the article and video is that yakisoba is whatever you make of it; that there is no true recipe. He says that it must contain vegetables, noodles and some sort of sauce (usually made up of condiments). His version looks pretty tasty. I'm just curious, to those who make yakisoba, is he correct? Is there no one way to make it? Is it more of a concept than an actual dish? Thanks!

[cheesecake17]

I've made it kind of the way he describes. No idea if it's traditional, but its really really good.

[ttoommyy]

Good to know. I'm going to try his recipe this Friday with shrimp instead of pork (meatless Friday during Lent).

[cheesecake17]

I actually did it with tofu, and it came out awesome. Just put whatever in it. Was good cold for lunch the next day too.

[flylice2x]

Yakisoba is like fried rice. You have the basic ingredient, in this case noodles, but can add anything you like. My wife being Japanese American makes it different from her mother who comes from Japan and I make a hawaiian version.

We also differ in how we make fried rice. I either use spam or portugese sausage and she uses bacon or pork.

So, I believe Bittman maybe correct, but of course it's his opinion.

[ttoommyy]

Thanks to both of you. Mark Bittman seems like the kind of person who makes blanket statements about things and expects people to take it as chapter and verse. I just wasn't sure if I should believe any of what I read. Thanks again.

[K K]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakisoba has some great info on a typical Japanese version.