Dipping noodles in sauce is the most marvelous idea.

If you, like me, are what Alex calls a “butter,” (short for butterfingers, but meaning generally spastic) sauce dribbles down your chin and splatters across your shirt and a solidly good mess ensues.  Nothing makes me feel two again like struggling to get a mound of wet noodles into my mouth.

Fortunately, the preparation of soba with dipping sauce is not as challenging as the consumption, but it is just as much fun.  This was our first attempt at home-cooked soba, though we’ve had some delicious versions at great places around the city.  To repeat myself, that’s home-cooked, not homemade, for we are not yet that skilled nor unoccupied.  Cooking soba noodles at home basically involves boiling water, throwing in noodles, and concocting a dressing. It’s easier than making just about anything, other than plain boiled pasta.  We fixed up some toppings, but you can go as minimalist as you desire.

Ingredients (serves 2-4)
8 oz. soba noodles
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 daikon radish, shredded
1 cup shitaki mushrooms, steamed in a bit of water and soy sauce

Instructions:
Boil water and salt it for soba noodles.  Combine stock, mirin and soy sauce, divide into bowls for dipping.  Cook soba noodles according to package instructions, and rinse with cold water.  Assemble soba noodles on plates, and top with scallion, radish and mushrooms.