Recipe: Yaki Soba

Yaki Soba
(Mina's Easy & Japanesey Recipe)
Source: James Harvey/rec.food.cooking/1996

Soba, Japanese style fried noodles. It is a very common home-style dish in Japan, but not traditional (originally Chinese chow mein) so it might not be listed in your Japanese cook books. It is often sold by street venders at the festivals or baseball stadiums, just like American hot-dogs. They usually use a Japanese sauce called 'Tonkatsu Sauce,' or 'Chuno Sauce' made by Bulldog Sauce company. I think most oriental stores sell them in the US. It is like thick Worcestershire sauce mixed with a lot of spices, apples and tamarind. If you can't find this kind of sauce, try mixing your Worcestershire sauce with a little bit of ketchup. Or, you can use some soy sauce and oyster sauce instead.

100g thin sliced pork, ham or whatever meat you have
2 packages Chinese egg noodles (frozen or fresh ones are the best)
1/4 cabbage
1 handful of bean sprouts
1 carrot
1/2 green pepper
1/2 yellow onion
salt and pepper
1/4 cup Tonkatsu sauce (or as much as you like)
1 to 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
Beni-shoga(red pickled ginger strips) and Ao Nori (Green seaweed flakes) for garnish (optional)

Cut all the vegetables in bite sizes. (Carrot should be very thin.)

Prepare noodles, following the direction in the package.

Heat oil in a Chinese wok or a deep frying pan. Saute pork, carrot and the other vegetables. Put them in a plate and set aside.

Add some more vegetable oil in the wok, put the cooked noodles in, and fry until the noodles are hot.

Put the cooked pork and vegetables back in to the wok. Mix them with noodles. Add salt, pepper and Tonkatsu sauce. Mix well and serve with Beni-shoga and Ao Nori.