Noodles seriously make the world come together. As if I didn’t eat enough chinese noodles, vermicelli noodles, italian pasta (angel hair is my favorite), etc., I’ve branched out and started buying japanese noodles. Soba noodles (buckwheat noodles) to be exact. And nothing goes better with noodles than a big bowl of soup.

To make the broth, I boiled the following ingredients together:

• 5 cups of water
• 1/4 cup of shaved bonito [the one on the right in image below]
• a 4″ piece of dried dashi [the one on the left in the image below]
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 2 teaspoons sugar

After everything comes to a boil, bring the heat down to medium and cook the broth for another 30 minutes.

In a separate pot of water, boil the soba noodles (image below) according to the package instructions, drain, and assemble into bowls.

With the same pot that you boiled the soba noodles, you can boil other “side” ingredients. I chose [clockwise] some spinach, shimeji mushrooms, fish cakes, tempura, and enoki mushrooms. Ladle in the dashi broth and arrange the side ingredients in your bowl. And because I like a little kick, top it off with some togarashi spice (not pictured).