Sunday, April 6, 2008
My Favourite Food @ 5:41 AM
My favourite food....
Honestly, I have no favourite food! Food is something that keeps me alive, something that keeps my day going! Without food, there would be no life. Food supports life.
In my opinion, there are 3 very important factors that make up good food. They are appearance, fragrance and most importantly, taste. Without appearance, the certain dish might not be able to whte the consumer's appetite. Without fragrance, the consumer will definitely be turned away if the dish smells bad; and lastly without taste, why call it food?
If I really have to have a favourite food, I would say Soba. Soba is a type of thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat. It can be served wither in a warm soup, or simply chilled coupled with a dipping sauce known as 'Soba Tsuyuu". My favourite one would definitely be the chilled version known as 'cold soba'.
Cold Soba is usually served on a sieve-like bamboo tray known as a 'zaru' and garnished with bits of dried seaweed. The dipping sauce as mentioned above, is a mixture of dashi (A type of soup base ), sweetened soy sauce and mirin (a type of rice wine similar to sake). Needless to say, being a Japanese dish it is definitely eaten using the chopsticks.
Certain misinformed people, not just Singaporeans eat it by first pouring the whole bowl of Soba Tsuyuu onto the tray of chilled soba noodles; but the correct way of eating is to hold the bowl of dipping sauce on one hand and using chopsticks on the other hand, to take some noodles and dip it into the sauce and lastly, slurping the noodles loudly. The slurping part may sound very rude, but in Japan, it is traditionally considered polite to do so. This applies to eating warm noodle dishes too as slurping the noodles also act as a cooling mechanism for the warm noodles, making it easier to chew and swallow.
What makes the cold soba so special to me? The taste of the noodles dipped in the soba tsuyuu is a mix of savoury and sweet goodness! The chill factor also makes the dish very refreshing and thus an ideal meal to consume in hot weather or summer!
This is why my favourite food is Cold Soba. (I have it almost everytime I visit a Japanese restaurant!)
