Jun 2, 2021
Summer Food in Japan: I Made Hiyashi Chuka (Cold Ramen) for the First Time!
Japan has various summer foods to offer, but since we are currently in a pandemic my husband and I avoid eating out too much. Therefore, I decided just to make an easy Japanese summer food and I found a recipe for Hiyashu Chuka.
Also known as cold ramen or reimen in the Kansai region, Hiyashi Chuka is a Japanese dish that is made up of chilled ramen, various vegetables that are bountiful during summer in Japan, and a sweet and sour sauce that consists of soy sauce, ginger, sugar, sesame oil, and rice vinegar.
Compared to your usual warm noodle dishes, Hiyashi Chuka has a light and refreshing flavor, making it a perfect summer food. I’m not a big fan of ramen, because it just tastes too heavy for me, so when I read about cold ramen I got curious and I wanted to try it out.
Ingredients and How to Make It!
Since I just followed a recipe online, I will just share the summary of how I made this dish. If you also want to make it, here is the link to the recipe I used from Just One Cook Book:
Regarding hiyashi chuka’s ingredients, there are a lot of things in it, so it can be a bit overwhelming and makes you think it’s difficult to make, but it’s not! That’s why you should just list down all of the things you need first and check your pantry if you already have it to avoid buying too much stuff.
If you want, you can also omit or add other ingredients. For me, I removed the ham since I’m cutting down on eating pork and added moyashi goma-ae also known as "mung beans" or "beansprouts," which I simply cooked with salt. Moreover, I also didn’t add Japanese chili oil in the sauce because I want to avoid eating spicy food.
Once I gathered all of my ingredients, all I needed to do was to arrange them.
The only thing that took time to prepare was kinshi tamago or "egg crepe."
If you don’t want to make it from scratch, you can always just buy one in the supermarkets here in Japan. But, if you are like me and want to learn how to make it on your own, you can just check out the Just One Cook Book’s recipe:
Verdict
I’m officially adding Hiyashi Chuka as one of my favorite Japanese foods! Both my husband and I really liked it.
Despite making it for the first time, I think I did a good job. My husband even said that I am getting better at cooking every day. Anyways, it’s not a challenging dish to make. Most of the ingredients in Hiyashi Chuka are fresh, so you just need decent knife skills.
For those who are quite busy and want to skip preparing it, you can buy Hiyashi Chuka at the supermarket. However, it probably has a lot of preservatives making it a bit unhealthy.
Thus, I highly suggest making it on your own, because it’s one of the easiest Japanese dishes to make, you can personalize the ingredients in it, and you know what you are eating.
Follow me:
TRAVEL: @saunteringboots
ARTS & CRAFT: @lykishbella
0 Comments