Theme Recipe: Mori Soba

When I was thinking about any kind of food in a Ridley Scott film, my mind kept coming back to noodles.  Mostly it was the noodles that Deckard orders in the pidgin Chino/Japanese 2019 Los Angeles "Chinatown."  Yet it is quite another noodle moment in a Scott film that most have burned into their, well Noodle after one watching.  Alien=Spaghetti.  I had the unenviable "pleasure" making dinner one night when my father was out of town and watching the movie for the first time with my mother...I had never seen it before....what did I make??? You guessed it.  Anyway, noodles of a different sort here.  When I saw M.  Douglas' and A. Garcia's characters trying to manage these with chop sticks in Black Rain, my mind was made up.

Mori Soba

This is basic, basic and can be expanded on, in fact, it's expected.  This is a popular lunch in Japan.  Similar in the way we eat Ramen.  Just think of these as the "real ramen."  Soba are buckwheat noodles.  They have a distinctive brown (some say gray) color.  They are better for you than noodle made from processed wheat.  Supermarkets in large cities, high in end grocer's and Asian markets all carry them (they are cheapest in the Asian markets!).  They can also be ordered online--even Amazon carries them now.

Fresh soba

6 to 12 oz. dried soba

1 cup Dashi stock (there are some good instant Dashi out there)

1/2 cup shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)

1 tbsp. Mirin (substitute sweet sherry if mirin isn't available, these days it is)

1/2 to 1 tsp. sugar

1/2 to 1 sheet nori, toasted lightly

1 large Green onion, thinly sliced

Wasabi paste mixed from dry mix with water

1. Boil the soba in lots of water until just done, for dried that around 6 minutes. Drain and rinse well under running water drain and set aside.

2.  Heat prepared dashi stock, and add the shoyu, mirin and sugar, simmer until the sugar dissolves pour this into 2 bowls or 4 cups, depending of number of diners.

3.  Place the green onion and the wasabi paste on a separate dishes.  Put noodles into hot dashi and cut roasted nori over the top, serve with garnishes for each diner.

Variations:

The traditional way to serve these is with the dashi stock as a "sauce" with noodle plated on the side.  Diner mix in the wasabi and the green onion as desired and then dip the noodles into the "sauce."  This can be served hot or cold depending on time of year.

The above broth service can be served cold, with noodles in cold broth in hot weather.

Additional garnishes can be offered.

Below is the whole noodle scene, with French subtitles...  Who know what kind of "noodles" Deckard is actually ordering in this 2019 dark Los Angeles..some odd combo of Lo Mein and Soba??  Who knows.