Miso soup.
Water, hon-dashi, bunapi-shimeji & enoki mushrooms, cut wakame, mutenka shiro miso, scallions, negi.
Atsuage, kind-of.
With grated daikon & chopped scallions; grated ginger w/ Higeta Honzen koikuchi-shoyu; and a glass of chilled Rihaku Nigori Sake 'Dreamy Clouds'.
Firm tofu blocks drained for a while then simply deep-fried in rice bran oil.
Zaru soba.
• I used banshu no ito jyukusei soba (this one). Thoroughly rinsed w/ cold water and drained well. Dressed w/ katsuo soft kezuri.**
• Dipping sauce put together by mixing Assi soba tsuyu, Takara hon-mirin & Hokkaido kelp flavour naturally fermented soy sauce, water, zapping briefly, then chilling to a little below room temp.
• Chopped scallions & sliced negi. Kameya hon-wasabi (Izu oroshi-wasabi) The last three are swirled into the shoyu as desired and the soba picked up and dipped into the mixture.
• Swirly-textured-grain wood chopsticks, antique carved soapstone chopstick rest.
** The kezuri-bushi sticks quite well to the soba - it will not fall off unless one shakes the soba strands with a little vigor. When dipping intothe shoyu they also tend to "stick with" the soba even as they soften and absorb some of the shoyu.
