Yakisoba

Ingredients

Noodles

• 600 gfresh yakisoba noodles, steamed wheat noodles

Meat

• 300 gthinly sliced pork belly

Vegetables

• half a cabbage, roughly chopped
• 1onion, sliced
• 1carrot, in thin strips
• a handful of beansprouts

Sauce

• 4 tbspWorcestershire sauce
• 2 tbspoyster sauce
• 2 tbspketchup
• 1 tbspsoy sauce
• 1 tbspsugar
• 1 tspmirin

To finish

• aonori, dried green seaweed
• katsuobushi, bonito flakes
• beni shoga, red pickled ginger
• Japanese mayonnaise

Equipment

• a large flat griddle or the widest pan you have

Directions

1. Mix the sauce ingredients together before you start cooking. Have everything ready and to hand before the pan goes on, since the cooking takes five minutes and there is no time to measure.
2. Rinse them briefly under warm water, or microwave the packet for 30 seconds, and separate the strands with your fingers. Put in like that they break into fragments as you try to separate them in the hot pan. Get the griddle or pan as hot as it will go.
3. Use the widest pan you own and cook in two batches rather than crowding it. Fry the sliced pork belly until it has rendered some fat and browned at the edges.
4. Let it colour properly, since that fat is what everything else cooks in. Add the onion and carrot first, then the cabbage, then the beansprouts last.
5. Keep them moving and keep them crisp. Yakisoba vegetables should still have bite, and cabbage cooked to collapse makes the whole thing watery. Cook them for only two or three minutes. Toss everything together with tongs or two spatulas. Pour it over and toss it through for a minute.
6. Add the sauce late rather than early. It contains sugar, and added at the start it burns onto the pan before the noodles are hot. Let it catch slightly on the griddle so it caramelises, which is what gives yakisoba its particular smoky sweetness.
7. Scatter aonori and katsuobushi over the top and add a heap of beni shoga. Yakisoba pan, noodles in a hot dog bun, sounds absurd and is entirely normal in Japan.

Technique

• Yakisoba noodles are wheat, not buckwheat, despite the name.
• Yakisoba pan, served in a bread roll, is a standard convenience store item.
• The sauce family descends from English Worcestershire sauce.

Substitutions

• Ramen noodles or any fresh wheat noodle.
• Bottled yakisoba sauce, which is what most households use.

Variations

• Made with seafood instead of pork.
• Shio yakisoba, with a salt-based sauce rather than the brown one.
• Yakisoba pan, served in a bread roll.

History

A postwar cheap-food adaptation of Chinese fried noodles, now the defining griddle dish of summer festival stalls.

Frequently asked questions

What is Yakisoba?

Yakisoba is a street food from Japan: wheat noodles griddled with cabbage, pork and sweet-savoury sauce. A postwar cheap-food adaptation of Chinese fried noodles, now the defining griddle dish of summer festival stalls.

How long does Yakisoba take to make?

Yakisoba takes 20 min of preparation and 15 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Yakisoba?

Yes, within limits. Ramen noodles or any fresh wheat noodle. Bottled yakisoba sauce, which is what most households use.

What is the most important thing to get right in Yakisoba?

Use the widest pan you own and cook in two batches rather than crowding it. Fry the sliced pork belly until it has rendered some fat and browned at the edges.