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I grew up next door to a Hawaiian Japanese family with two girls around my age who took me along on a lot of their weekend adventures. One of our frequent haunts was a local, no-frills Hawaiian restaurant called TNT Aloha Cafe (which still exists today!).
Most of the time I’d order loco moco — hamburger patties and fried eggs layered atop white rice, smothered in brown gravy. But when the hot weather hit, they’d start offering their summer special: cold saimin.
Saimin in Hawaii is *usually* served hot and tastes like a really simple cousin of ramen. The saimin noodle is technically its own style of noodle, but it’s relatively close to ramen in texture and flavor (especially thinner ramen noodles) and can be swapped fairly interchangeably. Saimin‘s clear broth reminds me a lot of Hong Kong style macaroni soup in its simplicity — and since saimin is really a Hawiian-Japanese-Chinese fusion dish, I wouldn’t be all that surprised if they have a common origin story (don’t quote me on that, though!).
Cold saimin, though, eats a lot more like a noodle salad. It doesn’t have a broth per se, but more of a tangy sauce/dressing. It’s adorned with various fresh veggies and usually kamaboko — that neon pink and white fish cake you’ve probably seen in ramen (or at least anime versions of ramen) before.
The beauty of this dish is its flexibility, though. You can use whatever veggies you have lying around and you can also swap out the fish cakes for proteins like spam or ham. Kamaboko is one of my favorite parts of this dish, though, so if it were up to me I’d always leave it in. You can even swap the noodles out, which technically makes it no longer saimin, but it’ll taste just as good. Even instant noodles would do the trick if you want something quick and satisfying.
One other mandatory ingredient: hot Chinese mustard.
There’s something about the juxtaposition of the cold, sweet/sour noodles with that horseradish-like nasal-burning mustard flavor that works so well. Don’t knock it ’til you try it. You can find it at any Japanese or Chinese market, or online.
Cold Saimin Noodle Salad
Ingredients
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp boiling water
- 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 1.5 tsp soy sauce
- 1 serving ramen noodles or noodle of choice
- 1/2 medium tomato sliced
- 1/4 small cucumber cut into matchsticks
- kamaboko Japanese pink & white fish cakes
- 1 green onion finely sliced
- sesame seeds optional, for garnish
- 1 Japanese style omelette sliced (see below)
For the Omelette
- 1/4 tsp dashi powder
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp boiling water
- 2 eggs
Instructions
Make the omelette
- Add the dashi powder and sugar to a small bowl, then add the boiling water and whisk with chopsticks or a fork until the dashi and sugar dissolve. Add the eggs and whisk everything together well.
- Heat a small non-stick pan on medium heat. Once warm, lightly grease the pan with cooking spray. Pour in about half the egg mixture and swirl the pan to create an even layer.
- As soon as the egg is just set, use a heatproof silicone spatula to gently roll the egg away from you, starting from the edge closest to you, kind of like a taquito. Move the rolled omelette back to the side of the pan closest to you and add the remaining egg. Repeat the rolling step as soon as the egg is just set, then remove the omelette from the pan and set aside as you prep the remaining ingredients. The omelette should be pale and not browned much.
Make the sauce and assemble
- Add sugar and boiling water to a medium sized serving bowl. Whisk with a fork to fully dissolve the sugar, then add the vinegar and soy sauce. Mix and set aside.
- Bring a medium sized pot of water to a boil. Add your noodles of choice and cook according to directions. Drain and rinse noodles under cool tap water to stop any additional cooking.
- Add drained noodles to the sauce mixture in the bowl.
- Layer vegetables and fish cake on top and sprinkle with sesame seeds before serving. Enjoy immediately, either cold or at room temperature.