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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

MAKING SAIMIN FROM ALMOST SCRATCH

It's been a few months since I really posted something totally local Hawaiian style. So in this post I'll get to a soup dish with noodles we all love, and nope it's not a pho, nor is it tom yum, but saimin. Say it…"Sigh….Min" there you got it, saimin is a staple soup and noodle dish that's a Japanese influence and can be found in lots of local diners like world famous L&L Drive Inn, Zippy's, Big City Diner, and many other establishments. What is saimin?

Saimin is generally made up of a dashi soup base, or frankly a seafood soup base. Out on the market you can buy frozen saimin and in the packet you'll get a few ounces of cooked wheat noodles, and a small packet of soup base. You will follow the instructions on the plastic wrap, and it looks something like this.

Directions:

Heat up a cup of water in a pot, bring to a boil and add in the soup base, then add in the noodles, and cook for about 2 minutes. Pour soup into a bowl with noodles, and garnish with chopped green onions, fish cake, scramble eggs, or whatever it is you want.

So here is what I'd do if I wanted saimin from (almost scratch)…meaning I will not make the noodles from scratch but buy it from a grocer that sells saimin noodles only. If you can't find saimin noodles, use angel hair pasta, seriously it works just as good man. But I'd make the soup base from scratch, and here we go folks, just follow me here.

Soup from scratch for saimin.

1. First cook your noodles and set them aside.
2. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.
3. Add in 1 strip of seaweed (kombu), 3 tbsp. of bonito flakes, 1 tsp of salt, and bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for about 4 minutes. 
4. Pour the soup into a bowl and add in the cooked noodles.

For garnish I'd use these precooked items. (and if you don't know how to make these, that's for another segment).

1 fried chicken thigh, sliced.
1 egg scrambled
1 slice of canned ham cooked.
3 slices of fish cake
Green onions to top it off, chopped of course, and I'd use some hot sauce and soy sauce to give it body and taste. Easy cooking. Here are some photos from Google Images I got for saimin, and I have older posts of saimin, but it's such a great meal, I had to do this again, and I'll probably do another one again too. WTF right?

Fresh saimin noodles from Hamura's
This bowl has fish cake on left, noodles and charsiu pork
This bowl has steamed won tons left, fish cake top center
boiled egg center, and some cooked meat to the right
with noodles sunk down into the bowl, mmmm.
This guy definitely sauced his bowl with some soy sauce
look how that broth looks like..but man, it is good I can tell.
Like a fine wine..a fine saimin has personality.

Until next time, don't choke on your food!!!!

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