Japanese style noodle soup, day 2

Day 2 of the Japanese-style noodle dish. Last night Jim and I went out to dinner at the Olive Garden. We had a gift certificate. I remember going there a long time ago in IN. Talk about supersized portions. I ordered tomato brochette and Jim ordered Calamari. We were served about 10 loaves of bread prior to the appetizer arriving. When the appetizers came we just looked at each other. Jim said to the waiter, can you hold the main course; this is a lot of food. I had 2 brochette and knew not to eat more which was about enough to have as an appetizer for a party. My individual pizza arrived; easily pizza for 2. Jim had a huge bowl of Chicken Alfrado. He ate it all. We took most of my meal home and about ¼ of Jim’s appetizer. We went to the Baltimore Craft Show today and had leftovers for dinner tonight as we didn’t get back until 7:00 PM. McDonald’s has nothing on the Olive Garden in terms of the word, supersized.


After dinner I started phase 2 of dinner tomorrow.

10 C Light Vegetable Broth (They said you should get 11 to 12 cups, I only got 10)

3C water

1 ½ C coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

1 ½ oz. dried shitake mushrooms

¾ C thinly sliced fresh ginger

2 lemon grass stalks, outer dark layers removed, 4” of the large bulb end used.

2 6” strips dried kombu seaweed, rinsed

2t. tamari soy sauce

1t. unseasoned rice vinegar

Put the first 6 ingredients in the pot and bring to a simmer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes add the kombu for a minute. Just an aside it will grow and look like that stuff on the beach. Strain the broth again and save the mushrooms. Toss the rest. Add the soy sauce and rice vinegar to the strained broth. Cut out the stems of the mushrooms and cut each in 3 to 4 slices.