Super Taste Restaurant

On a cold day, there are few things better than a giant bowl of warm noodle soup. Especially when those noodles come from a tiny, crowded restaurant in Chinatown. And when they are only $3.45. Rita and I both got the hand pulled noodles with vegetables and a fried egg. A few minutes later, we were presented with ridiculously ginormous bowls of deliciousness. You can also get many other toppings, such as beef, or fish balls (my favorite at most places...but it was slightly more expensive and was being cheap that day so i didn't try it at Super Taste), with the most expensive bowl coming to $6. And, like any good restaurant, they have big bottles of sriracha at every table. They also had dried mustard greens to add to your soup. At the restaurant, we each ate half our noodles, plus the fried egg and the vegetables (leafy greens) that came in the soup. At home, we added spinach, shiitakes, and more sriracha (this is what's pictured above).
Super Taste Restaurant
26N Eldridge St., New York, NY 10002
nr. Canal St

noodles with kimchi and sweet potato

i know, noodles again. but this is my favorite recipe we have made in our dorm so far. after we ate it for lunch, i looked forward to eating the leftovers for dinner all day.
we hit up our local asian market for some kimchee (with skate fish) and...

SRIRACHA! but don't use any in this recipe, because kimchi + sriracha would be too spicy, even for us.
anyhoo, the recipe:
makes about 3 servings
*200 grams (7 oz) dried asian noodles (ours were flat and white...i'm not up on my noodle terminology and the package didn't have a specific name. but you could also use udon, soba, or many other types of asian noodles)
*an 8 oz package of kimchi (like i said, ours had skate in it too, but it would be just as good with standard kimchi)
*a splash of soy sauce
*1 small to medium sized sweet potato
*half a yellow onion, sliced
*2 teaspoons butter, or butter substitute (you could probably use any oil too)
*a handful of baby spinach.
*a handful of peanuts, to garnish
1. preheat oven to 450 degrees F. cut ends off sweet potato and place in pan in oven for 40 min-1 hour, or until soft.
2. heat butter in a pan. cook onions until soft, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. cook noodles according to package directions. drain.
4. add soy sauce, spinach, and kimchi to noodles. stir.
5. cut sweet potato into bite sized pieces. add potato and onion to noodles. stir.
6. top each serving with a sprinkle of peanuts.
ps-check out the giveaway at lucky tastebuds

Udon with veggies and fish

In a radical change from the usual soba, we decided to make udon tonight. The recipe is pretty simple, but the udon turned out delicious and flavorful. It would also be great with some yams and ginger, if you have those.

Udon with veggies and fish
serves 2
*10 mushrooms, sliced
*2 cloves garlic, diced
*1 cup bokchoy, chopped
*1/2 lb flounder (or any other firm white fish), chopped
*2 T soy sauce
*2 T curry powder
*2 packs udon, the kind that comes with seasoning packets
*handful of peanuts
1)Cook the udon according to package directions, but without the seasoning packets. Drain, then toss with 1 T soy sauce and the seasoning packets.
2) Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a nonstick skillet. Once it's hot, add the garlic and mushrooms, and saute about 5 minutes or until mushrooms start to get soft.
3) Add the fish, plus 1 T soy sauce and the curry powder. Saute until fish is opaque and flaky, about 10 min. If you like you can leave the fish in one piece and just put it on top of everything else at the very end.
4) add the bokchoy and saute a few seconds, until it starts to wilt, then remove from heat.
5) toss everything you've just cooked with the udon. Add more soy sauce to taste, then sprinkle with the peanuts and enjoy.

PS-chocolate covered katie is having a giveaway of granola bars, "superfoods" and I think some other stuff too. Check it out!

spicy soba noodles with shiitakes and cabbage

first of all, i love this dish because it has so many fun to say ingredients. you've got the alliteration of "spicy soba", then "shiitakes" which is fun because it has two i's in a row, and also the word looks like "shit" (well, that is fun if you're immature. i am obviously way too mature to be amused by such childish things), and to top it all off, you've got "edamame", which really rolls off the tongue.
anyhoo, both of us twins have long been fans of soba salads and soups. the salads, served cold, are perfect for a rare san francisco hot day, and the soups are exactly what you need when the fog inevitably rolls in.
so when i saw this recipe on smitten kitchen, i knew i had to try it.

yum! we used straw mushrooms (1 can) instead of shiitakes because that's all the grocery store had. we also used the thai chili paste, but this dish was not super spicy.

soba with pesto and mascarpone

whenever I can't think of what to cook, I always end up making some variation of pasta with pesto and cheese. Today for lunch, I decided to change it up by using soba instead of regular pasta. I also used the mascarpone we had left over from our ravioli. I know the picture isn't very attractive, but my soba was delicious. I think it would be great with some sun-dried tomatoes too, so add those if you happen to have some. I don't remember the exact quantities, so this recipe is just an estimate.
Soba with pesto and mascarpone
serves 1

-a handful of soba noodles
-1/2 a tomato, chopped
-about 1/4 cup pesto sauce
-about 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
-1 roasted red pepper, jarred in olive oil, chopped
-1 leek, chopped
-olive oil for frying
-1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
cook the soba according to package directions. while it's cooking, heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet, then add leek. saute until leek begins to soften, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Once the soba is done cooking,turn off the stove, drain the pasta and return it to the pot you cooked it in. add leek, tomato, pepper, pepper flakes, and pesto sauce. turn the heat back on to a very low temperature and add the cheese gradually, while stirring it to coat pasta. Once the pasta is coated with cheese, turn the heat off and serve.

kitchen staples + soba with peanut sauce

If you cook a lot, it's important to always have certain things around that you can use to throw together a quick, delicious meal. Here's a list of what we consider to be kitchen staples:

* couscous
* pasta
* Asian noodles of some sort, could be soba, udon, or cellophane noodles
* jarred sauces. some of my favorites are peanut sauce, thai green curry, and pesto sauce (or whatever pasta sauce you like best)
* sriracha
* canned beans or chickpeas
* canned stewed tomatoes. these are good for making quick soups, since you can use the tomato liquid as a broth
* jarred veggies, such as artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers
* peanut butter
* spices and dried herbs. I find we use cumin, chili powder, basil and oregano the most, but it depends what kind of food you like most.

Using some of our staples, we made some soba noodles with peanut sauce (as you may have gathered from the title), various left over veggies, and sriracha sauce, which is amazing and pretty much makes everything better. I have heard that peanut butter and sriracha sandwiches are delicous, although I have never personally tried one. I guess this is a less odd version of that. It was great, and included 3 of our "kitchen staples", asian noodles, sriracha, and jarred sauce. This is also a good recipe for using up leftovers, since you can just throw in whatever leftover veggies you have.


anybody want a peanut?


Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

* about 2 cups soba noodles
* sriracha sauce to taste
* about 1/4 cup peanut sauce
* 1 cup green onions, chopped
* 1/4 cup roasted peanuts
* 1/2 onion, diced
* 1 cup carrots, sliced
* about 2 tablespoons olive oil

1. cook soba noodles according to package directions. meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet
2. saute onions, 3/4 cup green onions, and carrots in olive oil until onions are soft and translucent
3. Remove soba from heat, drain, return to pot, and stir in onions, green onions, and carrots
4. Add peanut sauce and stir until coated, adding more if neccesary
5. Add siracha to taste and stir
6. Put in 2 seperate bowls. Sprinkle with peanuts and remaining green onions