Revisiting an old favorite, tofu somen noodles

2012-05-04

Revisiting an old favorite, tofu somen noodles

I think it was 4 years ago when I got hooked on cold tofu somen noodles. It is not a traditional Japanese dish but a product that was probably dreamed up by a company a few years ago and I guess has quite a bit of a fan base since grocery stores still sell it. Since normal cold somen noodles are a summer dish, these somen noodles made out of tofu also usually come out right before we hit the summer season. I use to eat it like a maniac because I loved both tofu and somen so this product seemed like a dream come true. Plus it was low in calories and I was trying to lose pounds and pounds of weight back then so this was perfect and it sure did work.

So now it is right before summer and the tofu somen are displayed nicely on the grocery store shelves. I was reminded of my love for this product and decided to give it another shot. I ate it with green onions, grated ginger, and broth with your basic Japanese ingredients like dashi, soy, and mirin like I would normally eat cold somen noodles. It tasted fine but something felt wrong.

It took me a bit to realize this but I think I’ve started to like the flavor of soy in real tofu so much that not being able to taste the soy enough in the tofu somen just didn’t seem right. So it wasn’t like the tofu somen noodles tasted bad but I think I just had to consider this product more of a new type of somen that happened to be made with tofu than a tofu product.

So I guess my taste buds have changed but I still think tofu somen noodles are a good healthy midnight snack. Much better than the homemade Oreo cheesecake leftovers (or may I say calorie overload?) I ate the other day! Yum but yikes!