I've been cooking a lot lately since I've gotten home, and to beat the heat, I made my family some cool soba to eat for lunch today.

For some background: soba are Japanese buckwheat noodles that are thin, easy to cook, and can be eaten hot or cold. It's served with a savory-sweet soup base and it's usually garnished with green onions, with the addition of vegetables, tempura, fish cakes, and fish or small amounts of meat, like pork. 

The soup base is usually served on the side, and you eat the noodles by dipping mouthful of noodles at a time (from another bowl or bamboo-mat-lined tray) into the sauce, then eating it right after.

However, I like to serve the noodles in the soup. It's just less dishes to clean and plus the noodles sitting in the yummy broth make it somewhat easier to eat and the flavors can intermingle. 

I place a serving of noodles in a large bowl. A large handful is enough.

Here, I added pan-fried tofu (fried with some olive oil and soy sauce) and Brussels sprouts. 

 When I make soba, I like to be really flexible with what I put in it. With the soba noodles as a healthier noodle to slurp, as it's made with whole buckwheat, it has the appeal of whole wheat spaghetti with a more tender bite (Admittedly, I've made whole wheat spaghetti and served it with all the soba fixings! It works!). I like to mix traditional Japanese toppings with some un-Japanese ingredients due to what's available in my fridge or what I'm craving. My family has just started falling in love with Brussels sprouts, and I found that caramelizing them with the soup base helps get rid of the bitter flavor they have. It's a delicious combo.
Adding a drizzle of soy sauce and a sprinkle of garlic sauce parties up the tofu. Slicing it thin guarantees that it will cook evenly, quickly, and all the way through. Plus the soy sauce adds an amazing golden color to it. It really does beat adding it in plain, in terms of flavor and texture.

Then two ladles of the soup base! 

Some chopped green onion adds bite, as well as a little toasted panko (Japanese bread crumbs) lends some crunch. I added some shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven peper seasoning) for some heat.

 I added some toasted panko crumbs as a garnish because I thought a crunchy topping would be good in combination with the softness of the noodles, the roughage of the Brussels sprouts, and the chewiness of the tofu. I just put a handful into the pan that I fried the tofu and Brussels sprouts in until it was golden brown. A good tip is to constantly stir it while toasting to ensure that it toasts easily and doesn't burn! It was a good addition.

I've eaten soba ever since I could remember. In a largely assimilated family, food was one of the only ways that my parents really connected to Japanese culture. We don't speak or even know how to speak Japanese conversationally, and holidays are more of an entertainment factor, and if we even remember when they are. Food is a way that I've been able to appreciate my heritage in my own way - even if it means tweaking the recipes and adding non-traditional components to fit my budget or lifestyle. I've never seen a Brussels sprout ever used in Japanese cooking, and it still tasted marvelous as it floated in the soup! While there's still more to explore in terms of how I can better appreciate my ethnicity, I'm still trying to facilitate a lovely marriage between my American identity and my Japanese background.
So far, it's proven to be a tasty match, indeed.

With spring in full bloom and summer around the corner, I was craving some new foot fanciness - and I got some!

In December of 2013, I was enjoying the delicious summer-y feel that Southern California could afford from an OC-native braving the snow in the east coast. I treated myself to some winter break shopping, but couldn't justify buying these beautiful Steve Madden sandals (in Cognac) because I knew I would be trudging through snow storms for the next few months.

Flashforward to a couple of months later on spring break...and I went to DSW and I found them...but not in my size! Fortunately with a little help from my mom (who's a DSW shoe lover) and some of her gift certificates, I was able to get some rain boot love AND these babes online!

They finally came into the mail today and I instantly tried them on. They are beautiful. Beautiful! The leather uppers are a little lighter than in the picture online...more like a milk caramel than a milk chocolate. But nonetheless, it's a good spring/summer neutral sandal that you can incorporate into any outfit!

I was initially worried because reviews said they ran on the larger size. I usually wear a 6.5 and the occasional 6 or even 7 depending on the size so just to be on the safe side, I got a 6. They fit perfectly so if you're in between sizes, definitely size down.

They're comfy and I walked around campus today without even chafing or blisters. The only downside is that there is no arch support and the sole is on the thin side but honestly, I'm not planning to go on any serious treks with these on so for its purpose, that's okay.

I'm absolutely in love with these sandals. If you're looking into some pretty summer sandals that won't crumble after a season, these will do the trick.