Arriving at Whole Foods late Saturday Night I promptly started searching for the Shirataki noodles that I had been reading about in the Huffington Post. These noodles, originally Japanese, were unheard of until they were remarketed and present to America as the "zero-calorie noodles." The words zero-calorie and noodles do not go together in the same sentence, at least not sentences that aren't accompanied by a list of unrecognizable chemicals.
Clearly I was skeptical but I needed an adventure.
After finally locating the strange things I was trying to convince myself were noodles, I headed to the Asian food section. If I was going to try them I wasn't going to drown them in marinara sauce and pretend they weren't Japanese because they had "low calorie" marketing all over the package.
I finally decided on a peanut stir-fry sauce and an obscene amount of mushrooms. The preparation was strange, they smelled like fish and I had to 'dry-fry' them until they squeaked. So now they were fishy zero-calories noodles that talked. I was not growing more confident.
Ultimately they weren't bad. It was a bit like eating rubber udon noodles. Sounds gross but it wasn't awful, the peanut sauce helped, and I kind of enjoyed the texture. Two things I took away from my experiment; one, these are NOT noodles, and two, if your craving noodles, stick to the real stuff, but for a foodie adventure, they are perfect.
This meal sounds very intriguing. I've never "dry-fried" a noodle before, now I'm dying to try it!
ReplyDeleteThis is so interesting! I wonder if there's certain tricks to make the noodle less chewy that aren't explicitly stated in the directions? Or maybe they're SUPPOSED to be a little bit chewy-like tripe!
ReplyDeleteMy life-time goal is to be able to make myself good Japanese ramen - even though that's as cocky as Lucy Knisley's goal to perfect the art of croissant-baking - so I admire your bravery in working with fussy, finicky noodle products.
ReplyDeleteStir-fry with mushrooms + anything is one of my favorite snacks. For that reason I'm sure I would have been able to get over the strange texture.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that they "squeaked" when they cooked made me laugh - how odd and strange for a food to do such a thing.
ReplyDeleteYou should go befriend a ramen noodle chef and hang out in the kitchen-- it's really cool to see them work the dough into noodles!
ReplyDeleteAlso, props to you for taking on this challenge-- clearly you killed it! Nicely done.
I would have never have thought to buy these noodles. It's great that you did! Your adventurous spirit makes me want to try cooking new things. As Lily said, I wonder if it was supposed to be that chewy texture. And I absolutely love stir-fry mushrooms, so I would be willing to try these squeaky noodles especially with some mushrooms!
ReplyDeleteWould you ever repurchase these 'noodles' and try to prepare them in a different way to reduce the rubbery texture? Or perhaps they could be baked into a casserole-like dish instead of being sauteed. Then again, why bother with them if you know there are better options out there. It was interesting that you took on this "challenge food" and tried to make the post of it.
ReplyDeleteI'm usually all for trying new things, but these seem really intimidating- congrats for taking something like that on. I also really wish you could have taken a picture of your creation (though the one you posted looks delicious).
ReplyDeleteYour post was very uplifting, despite your disappointment at your noodles being something else. I had a similar experience when I tried to make rice noodles for the first time. I'm glad you still found them enjoyable, even if doused with peanut sauce!
ReplyDeleteI've tried these noodles too, and actually really like them. They do have an odor when you take them out of the bag, but I've found that if you rinse them multiple times, the smell goes away. Your preparations sounds really interesting. I heard that you need to boil them for a couple minutes to make them more tender and they're a great addition to soup.
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