Yaki udon- stir fried udon noodle

It's difficult to think about your fashion sense in hot conditions as most of your interests are how to stay cool. So lately I really miss the seasons where you can enjoy co-ordinating your fashion. These are early and late winter, spring and autumn.

You can choose a different style dress or T-shirt (for men) to be fashionable in summer but you cannot add as much of your sense. Basically you only rely on the designer's sense. When it's a little colder, you can customize your basic clothes with the combination of layers. These could be a jacket, boots, a scarf, socks etc. This can show the person's sense and character, i find this more fun...

Today I will fry udon with bitter gourd ("goya" in Japanese). The nice bitterness gives you some appetite when you are tired. You can also use canned tuna instead of bacon.

Ingredients:

boiled udon

bitter gourd

onion*

bacon

enoki mushroom*

ginger

garlic

soup (dried fish, 2~4tbsps)

salt and pepper

chili powder

soy sauce

*Anything you like

1- Cut the vegetables, garlic, ginger and bacon.

2- Stir fry 1 with a little salt and pepper. When 1 is cooked, put the udon, soup and soy sauce in.

3- Stir fry for a few minutes then flour some chili powder.

Itadakimasu.

Cold udon with eggplant and pork

Jinbocho (map) is the place to go if you love books. It can be found in central Tokyo where the streets are full of old book stores. Lots of people stop by a shop, check books outside and read it for a minute. That's what you see in this town.

Each book store has its own specialty like culture, hobbies, math's, sciences, languages or laws etc. So the whole area is just like one big library. For example, there is a store mostly has Italian, Portuguese and Spanish books and another has just books of the Edo era (AC1600-1868 in Japan). There are even some places that specialize in a particular war.

It's a lot of fun just to walk along the streets, so I can always find interesting books.

For some reason, the street (Hakusan st.) crossed with the main book street (Yasukuni st.) contains many sports stores and it's popular to buy cheap ski-gear here as well.

Today I will introduce an udon recipe in a different style to tradition.

Ingredients for 2 serves;

udon

minced pork

egg plant
garlic

ginger
nutmeg

salt

sake (1tbsp)

vinegar (1tbsp)

soy sauce (1tbsp)

pepper

starch (1tsp)

1- Boil udon and then wash it with cold water. Drain the water.

2- Fry the minced pork with sesame oil, the finely cut ginger and garlic. Add the cut egg plant and fry till the pork is cooked.

3- Add a cup of water, salt, sake, pepper, nutmeg, vinegar and soy sauce. Boil until there is less water.

4- Melt the starch in the little water, put it into 3 and stir well.

5- Put 4 on the udon.

Sprinkle some red chili powder on if you like it spicy.

Itadakimasu.