Comfort Food

I love making soba at home. It takes me back to my days living in Tokyo attempting to cook
Japanese food. I love going to the Japanese grocery store around the corner from my place and carefully choosing all the necessary ingredients. I love to improvise, to add in something new
each time, just to surprise myself :) My usual fixings are scallions, enoki mushrooms, fried tofu,
ground sesame and of course shichimi for a little kick. But tonight I added a touch of my special ingredient, this garlic chili sauce from Japan. It was a gift from a friend from Tokyo. I usually use it
in the vinegar dipping sauce for my gyoza (which I had as an appetizer :) so I decided to try it in the soba too. Delicious! I also had a small side of Kinpira, which is burdock root preparing Japanese-style. It's very common in Japan on Izakaya menus but less common here in the US and never on sushi menus. It's really good for digestion.