There But For A Decent Supermarket Go I

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     My daily Foodbuzz e-mail yesterday contained a shrimp and soba noodle salad dish that brought me straight back to Japan and ignited a pretty fierce craving in me.  It sent me, with slim hopes but fingers crossed, to my local supermarket.  (It's Sparkle, in Columbiana, and if you own it go ahead and send me hate mail.)

     Would they have the soba noodles, or some udon or rice noodles?  Could they, would they....please, let it be!

     Nope.

     Okay. I can adapt some ramen noodles.  Not as good, not by a ways, but doable.  Do you think, maybe, in this age when sushi and Asian food are becoming so popular, and people are recognizing the health benefits of seaweed....could there be nori?

     Nope.

     All righty.  They had some seaweed soup mix, which, again, I can adapt.  Fine.  But really, all I need now is rice wine.  The bottle of mirin in my pantry is just shy of the half cup I need for the dressing.  I looked hopefully to the top shelf, saw rice wine vinegar, looked left....and looked right....and.....

     Nope.

     While I appreciate, Sparkle Market, that your complete lack of variety and imagination has challenged me to stretch my culinary abilities and make something out of the nothing I can find there, I have to warn you.  If Giant Eagle ever comes to town, anywhere NEAR this town, you're done for.  Just saying.

    So.  All the ranting aside, I did make a version of what I was craving that turned out well.  It wasn't nearly as healthy as I would have liked, but it tasted good, and was different, and a welcome change from meat and potatoes fare.

     I cooked the soup and the ramen noodles and let them cool.  I cooked the shrimp in a little bit of sesame oil and a lot of Old Bay seasoning, and let them cool as well.

     While everything was chilling, I shaved some cucumber onto my cutting board.  Is there anything more beautiful than shaved cucumber?  I had an unexpected bonus in that I had diced onions on that board the night before, and the moisture in the cucumber shavings brought the most delicate onion flavor up from the bamboo...it was hard for The Girl and I to save any of them for the salad.  Delicious.


     When everything was assembled, we had a cool, refreshing, and fairly good for us meal that was a little bit different.  It didn't end up being what it started out being, but it was good.  Someday, when there are markets with variety and selection and great produce and seafood and a butcher and....you know, it will be great.