Enjoy This Delicious Yakisoba With Your Friends

The first Japanese barbeque that I attended got me fascinated because it was quite different than what we have back home. We grilled a variety of meat, some sea foods and vegetables but what got me surprised was seeing "yakisoba" (fried noodles) being prepared. I didn't know that noodles will go well with barbeque but it did. Usually noodles are sold in packs that are good for two, three or for four people. During that barbeque, I ate a whole pack good for four people and that is how delicious it was.

We had two barbeque grills, one for grilling and one with a barbeque plate on top where we cooked vegetables and yakisoba. The ladies helped preparing the ingredients and the men did the cooking. One of the girls brought three types of yakisoba sauce at the barbeque. One is sweet, one is a bit sour and the last is a bit spicy but they all taste the same. The kids loved the sweet sauce, the sour sauce was popular with the ladies and the spicy sauce were popular among the men.

Yakisoba is a simple but tasty dish. The ingredients are not hard to find and preparation is easy. It can be prepared in minutes by anyone. Here is the recipe for yakisoba.

Yakisoba Recipe

Ingredients:

- One pack of yakisoba (dry noodles)

- 250 grams of beef cut in thin strips

- Cooking oil

- One Carrot

- One Cabbage

- You can also add other vegetables, meat or sea foods of your choice, just cut them into bite size pieces

- Half a cup of water

- Your choice of yakisoba sauce or tonkatsu sauce

- Peeled and crushed ginger (optional)

Preparation:

- Start by peeling the vegetables and cut them into bite size pieces. Wash them properly in water.

- In a frying pan, fry the beef and saute all the vegetables, but do not over cook.

- Add the noodles in the frying pan and add half cup of water

- Water will evaporate, fry it for about four to five minutes or best to test the noodles by eating some.

- Add the yakisoba flavoring that came with the yakisoba package.

- Transfer the yakisoba to a plate, pour yakisoba sauce on top and it is ready to serve.

Some like to sprinkle katsuobushi on top of the yakisoba. Some like adding mayonnaise. Some like to add few drops of lemon and some like it plain.

Delicious Squid With Chinese Noodles Recipe

Squid probably ranks second to fish when it come to seafoods popularity. Squids are cephalopod mollusks and are packed with minerals and calcium that aids building bones and teeth just like shrimps and fish. They shoot black ink when they are evading predators and have tentacles and a bird-like beak. Finding good quality squid is quite easy. Good squid smells like the sea and is never strong nor smells fishy and the membrane covering it is not pink or purple but gray.

Noodles too are packed with lots of healthy stuffs that our bodies need. It is also known that noodles are low in calories. Noodles has been around with us for many years and has been loved by many people from different walks of life all over the globe. It is a staple food for many countries for hundreds of years. It is said that noodles originated from from China several thousands of years ago and spread all through out the world.

Many people loves eating squid and so is eating noodles. It is very easy to combine both and prepare a delicious healthy dish. If you love eating squid and noodles, I suggest that you try this nutritious and delicious recipe. The ingredients are easy to get and are quite common. The preparation is not that difficult to do and doesn't require a lot of time.

Ingredients:

Squid With Chinese Noodles Recipe (for four)

- Twelve squids

- Four garlic cloves

- Flour

- 100 grams of Chinese noodles

- Six springs of chives

- Some olive oil

- Modena vinegar

- Parsley

- Salt

Preparation:

- Cut and clean the squid. Cut the fins and tentacles and stuff them inside the squid.

- Roll the squids through flour, add salt. Pour cooking oil in the frying pan, add garlic cloves and squids and fry.

- Cut the noodles in eight centimeters strips and separate them in four piles. Bond each pile with a chive sprig then fry them in a frying pan with plenty of oil.

- Arrange the squids around the plate with the noodles positioned at the center. Pour a little amount of cooking oil in a bowl, add two tablespoons of modena vinegar and seasoned the squids.

- Decorate with parsley

- If you do not have chives to bind the noodles, you can use green part of leek sliced in thin strips.

Serve hot and enjoy.

The Delicious Penne

There are simple noodles in life, and then there is Penne. This pasta noodle is a noodle that was designed for the association of pasta and sauce, it is a marriage that have gone on for centuries and it will continue as long as there is a desire for this wonderful noodle. The Penne noodle is very simple in shape and use, the noodle is actually grooved to accept sauce and keep it attached to the noodle. This make s this type of pasta the ideal noodle for fine dining, as it allows the chef to actually showcase their sauce without worry of it separating from the pasta.

In Many Dishes

You can actually find the Penne pasta noodle within many Italian dishes, most of which will be associated with a red sauce versus a white creamy sauce. One of the most popular dishes that contains Penne pasta noodles, is baked Ziti. This dish is an absolute delight, and is considered one of the finest Italian pasta dishes available today. You will find this dish in just about every Italian restaurant worldwide, and this is for good reason. This dish is simply delightful, and it will fill you up and make you warm for the rest of the day. There are several forms of pasta noodle, yet few can be as versatile as the Penne noodle that graces so many fine baked pasta recipes today.

Difficult Die, Simple Noodle

When the Penne pasta noodle was thought out, Italian pasta making die makers, actually had a difficult time creating the die for the pasta maker that will forge the Penne noodles. The shape is nothing that they were familiar with, and the tube like shape was actually very fragile. To keep the noodle from collapsing on it, the pasta makers had to ensure that they kept the length of the noodle rather short opposed to some of the other noodles that you can find today. This noodle was actually used most often within the capital city of Rome, and it was used with a white sauce and usually was coupled with shrimp or scampi. Both of these variations became quite popular in Rome, and managed to make their way out of the confines of Rome's walls. Today, this noodle has its share of followers with not only white sauces but also great red tomato sauces dressing it and setting it for dining.

Various Sized Noodles

While Penne is actually a standard size, you can find its distant cousins within various sizes that allow for many recipe changes. This means that the introduction of meats and or whole tomato pieces can actually find a place on the plate with noodles that are not exactly Penne, but they definitely share their shape and structure. This makes this type of noodle extremely versatile, and you can use this pasta noodle for so many recipes it will make your head spin. This noodle is also great when used within a soup or stew as well, as this noodle is simple to get a hold of with a spoon.

Beyond Sushi - 3 Delicious But Lesser Known Japan Food Items

If you're a lover of Japanese food, you're undoubtedly familiar with sushi, tempura, teriyaki, and other common Japanese food fare, but in this article I'd like to introduce you to three delicious Japan food items that you might not yet have heard of. All of these foods are both common and popular in Japan (not to mention delicious!), but have not yet found their way to the masses overseas in the same way that sushi has. Trust me, though, it's just a matter of time before they do!

1. Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki Japanese pancake is a popular food item in Japan at restaurants, festivals and home parties. Translated literally as "cook what/as you like," okonomiyaki is especially fun to eat at restaurants and home parties, where participants gather around a flat grill, mix up the ingredients, and have fun cooking the pancakes themselves.

The okonomiyaki pancake batter consists of flower, eggs, water, grated yam, and cabbage. Fillings include pork, assorted seafood, vegetables, kimchi, cheese, mochi, and yakisoba. Toppings and seasonings include nori seafood flakes, katsuobushi (fish flakes), pickled ginger, mayonnaise, and a Worcestershire-like sauce.

2. Takoyaki

Japanese Takoyaki is a snack of grilled octopus balls consisting of a pancake-like batter and a little piece of octopus as a filling. The dumpling batter is poured into a special pan molded into rows of little semi-circles and grilled for a few minutes on one side. Then the balls are flipped over with a toothpick or chopsticks and grilled on the other side until golden brown.

The takoyaki are then served up, usually in portions of 8 or so, in a plastic or paper container and topped with a sweet soy-based sauce and ingredients like green onion, pickled ginger, green onion, mayonnaise, and katsuobushi (dried fish shavings).

3. Onigiri Rice Balls

Onigiri rice balls are a favorite picnic and snack food in Japan. Onigiri is a popular carry out food item in Japanese convenience stores, and is a common item found in bento boxed lunches. Simple to make and delicious to eat, onigiri is a staple food item in Japan.

Popular onigiri fillings include tuna salad, salmon flakes, seafood salad, konbu (a type of sea vegatable), umeboshi (a sour bright-red pickled Japanese plum), and shrimp tempura.

If you're planning to travel to Japan, make sure to keep an eye out for these delicious Japan food items and give them a try!