A bench. A bowl. Nutritious food. Fast. And sexy. While we’re holding our breath waiting for wagamama to open its doors on the island and make it all come true, we might as well conduct an experiment or two in our own kitchens. After all, it needn’t apparently take us any longer than a cup of tea to brew a broth, whip up a stir-fry or fashion a salad out of noodles.
But first, some info on the long and curlies. While the debate continues as to whether noodles or pasta came first, the essential difference between the two products is that, where Italy “seeks variety through shape, Asia provides interest through type: egg, rice, wheat, buckwheat, beanthread and potato”. Freshly chopped herbs, seeds, dressings, sauces, broths, meat, fish and vegetables provide infinite combinations of taste, texture and flavour that geographically span the whole of the Far East, from Japan to Korea, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and all the way to Indonesia.
Convenience and low expense may well be added to versatility. Noodles are the new hamburger – minus the grease, calories, and health warnings. Easy to cook, this latest fast-food makes a healthy and nutritious statement: high in complex carbohydrates, low in fat and essentially free from additives, with an emphasis on fresh vegetables and fish rather than meat.
It is also open to sound effects. In wagamama restaurants they apparently encourage slurping, a practice considered proper in Japan. This may well be a chopstick too far for your kitchen, but then again it might just be the way to go if you want to persuade younger residents in your household to pick up the taste.
A short introduction – ‘the wagamama way’ – demystifies ingredients, equipment and approach. You are then unleashed on your own into noodle-land pleasuredom, to choose your sauces, salads and drinks, and whether you will take your noodles ‘souped up, wrapped or quick’ or whether you will be sticking it all into one pot, entertaining guests with it or launching an all-out seduction offensive on your children.
You can bring a pot to a trotting boil for a pork, prawn and egg noodle soup, or lick dirty fingers grazing on seafood rolls with beansprouts, lettuce and fennel. Get down to supper in seconds with super-charged recipes like chive and chilli noodles or soy-braised salmon, and entertain with marinated beef skewers and egg noodles.
For warm and hearty, though, bring that wok out and chuck it all in: squid, broccoli and asparagus; sweet and sour prawn noodles; an aubergine hot-pot. Slurping optional.
wagamama – ways with noodles is published by Kyle Cathie and is available from Moufflon Bookshops (£15.75)
Prawn, mushroom and spinach noodles
Serves 2
Ingredients
100g rice noodles
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten and seasoned
12 raw peeled tiger prawns
6 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
6 spring onions, cut into 3cm lengths
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
50ml hoisin sauce
50ml chicken stock
50g spinach leaves
2 handfuls of beansprouts
Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet, drain and refresh under cold water.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a hot wok then add the egg, swirl around so that it thinly coats the bottom of the wok and cook until set, about 1 minute. Remove, allow to cool, then roll up and thinly slice.
Heat the remaining oil in a hot wok, season the prawns and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and spring onions and stir fry for 1 minute. Add the garlic and, 10 seconds later, the hoisin sauce and stock. Bring to the boil, cook for 1 minute and then add the spinach. Cook for a further 2 minutes or until the prawns are done.
Fold in the noodles and shredded egg, check the seasoning and serve topped with the beansprouts.
