Hiyashi Chuka
Hiyashi Chuka
Hiyashi chuka is Japan's essential summer noodle dish, a bowl of chilled ramen-style noodles arranged with a careful selection of colourful toppings and finished with a tangy, flavourful dressing. The name translates literally as cold Chinese, a reference to its origins in the Chinese-influenced cooking traditions that shaped much of Japanese noodle culture. It is served cold throughout the summer months and is as much about visual presentation as it is about flavour, the noodles are typically topped with julienned ham, cucumber, egg strips, tomato, crabstick and sesame, arranged decoratively around the bowl before the dressing is poured over.
There are two traditional dressing styles: soy-based, which is tangy and light, and sesame-based, which is richer and nuttier. Both work well with the same set of toppings, and the choice between them is largely personal preference. The dressing is usually served in a small jug alongside the bowl, allowing each person to pour as much as they like. Good Japanese sesame paste, neri goma, is the key ingredient in the sesame version and makes a significant difference to the depth of flavour.
Making hiyashi chuka at home requires a few specific tools. A large pot for boiling and cooling the noodles quickly, a good peeler and julienne tool for preparing the vegetable toppings, and deep bowls wide enough to display the toppings attractively are the essentials. The noodles themselves, chukamen, which have a slight alkaline quality from kansui, are available in the ingredients section of this collection.
Hiyashi chuka is one of those dishes that looks impressive and tastes genuinely refreshing on a hot day, yet requires little more than good prep and the right ingredients.
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Serve in our bowls and add our condiment dispensers for the dressings.
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