somen salad...semi-failure

Today was a really nice day, but REALLY warm. At least it wasn't humid (which is a word you will be hearing until you get sick of it in the up and coming months), still it was kind of summery.

I wanted to make something kind of "cool" for dinner tonight, so I made somen salad. I've made it before and posted about it here.

I found another recipe for somen salad in a cookbook my mom gave me recently which was written by her classmate, Jean Watanabe Hee.

The reason this salad was a semi-failure was because I bought a different type of somen. I bought the cheaper of all the somen on the shelf and ended up with a really junk texture of noodle, in fact after cooking it, it had all this numeri (slime) on it. Even after washing it, you could see the strings of slime...blah.

Still, I wasn't going to throw it out (although I was tempted to). Here is the recipe for the salad, if you'd like to give it a try. It is a little different from the recipe I posted before.

Somen Salad from "Hawaii's Best Salads, Sides & Soups"
1 package somen (8 oz) noodle broken in half and cooked according to package directions
1 small head iceberg lettuce, shredded
1 bunch Chinese parsley, chopped (optional)
3 stalks green onion, finely chopped
1 cucumber, julienned
1 kamaboko (6 oz) thinly sliced and cut into thin strips
3 eggs, beaten and fried, thinly sliced into 2-inch strips
1/4 pound char siu or ham, thinly sliced

Dressing:
1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup oil

Layer salad ingredients in orlder isted in 9 x 13 inch pan. Refrigerate. Combine dressing ingredients and shake well. Serve salad in individual portions and pour desired amount of dressing over.

NOTES: I only had kurogoma (black sesame seeds), so that is what I used. If you can't find these veggies where you are, use what you have on hand. I don't usually buy iceberg lettuce, so I used what I had--bib lettuce.