Friday Fried rice mini series No2 is “Sobameshi”! Sobameshi is the ultimate Japanese street food which Yakisoba and Yakimeshi combined!
It is said that Sobameshi was first made in Kobe, Hyogo prefecture. There are many Okonomiyaki shops in Kobe. The story goes, that a customer brought to the shop some left over rice and asked to the chef to fry Yakisoba with his rice. Fried rice is usually flavoured with salt or soy sauce generally speaking. So making fried rice with Yakisoba, usually worcestershire sauce flavour, was very unique and gained popularity rapidly.
To be honest, even though I am from Kansai region, very close to Kobe, I did not know this till January this year, when I went back to my home town in Japan. I actually found it in a supermarket shelf where you find a lot of instant noodles. I bought one while I was staying at my parents’ home. Those instant noodles are so delicious compared to the instant noodles available in Australia, so we always have at least one of them. My usual choice is Nissin Donbe Udon noodles but when I found “UFO Sobameshi” I had to try it.
OMG, it was so delicious, I instantly thought about recreating this myself in Australia. Last week my son came back and we cooked Okonomiyaki and since the electric hotplate was out, we cooked this for dinner! Back in Japan when I had the instant sobameshi, my children had something else but I think they regretted it. We finally cooked Sobameshi on the hot plate back here in Australia and it was delicious.
The main ingredients are of course rice and egg noodles. I am sure those two ingredients are readily available from any supermarket nowadays. Then you need veggies and proteins of your choice. I used squid, as it is often used in Yakisoba or Okonomiyaki. I bought it from Aldi but you can use bacon, pork, beef, chicken or eggs. I used cabbage, but sliced onion, carrots or capsicum is great too.
I added Tenkasu too, which is a Tempura by-product. Tenkasu means “Tempura refuse” literally. When you make Tempura, a lot of small tempura batter floats on the surface of the oil. To keep the oil fresh, those tempura crisps are scooped up and you will have a pile of them at the end. They are crunchy and have absorbed all the flavour of the Tempura, so Japanese people like to use the tenkasu in other cooking as well to add crunchiness and flavour. But if you can not get them you can omit this ingredient as well as Aonori, the seaweed flake. Hope you enjoy.
Sobameshi ソバメシ
Ingredients
- 2 cups of cooked rice
- 1 serve of steamed egg noodle
- 1 cup of finely chopped cabbage
- 2 tbs chopped green shallots
- 2 tbs Ttenkasu
- 1 squid meat chopped to bite size
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 2 fried eggs
Sauce
- 2 1/2 tbs whoostershire sauce
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- 1 tbs sake
Instructions
- Cut squid meat to bite size and chop cabbage and green shallots finely.
- Mix all sauce ingredients
- Heat olive oil on hotplate at 200 degrees (or a frying pan on high heat) and add cabbage and green shallots.
- Stir for a few minutes and add squid, tenkasu, rice and egg noodle.
- Stir fry and mix all together.
- Serve in two bowls and top with fried eggs, aonori, bonito flake and pickled ginger.
That’s exactly the right amount of recipe for the dish. Simple and you can adjust it to your liking.
Tenkatsu really isn’t available in my country, but we have something rather similar. It’s called “Bake Peas” (just in my language, lol).
They’re neither baked, nor peas, they’re pea sized and deep fried drops of batter (called bake batter, again, no baking it’s a batter you coat stuff in to deep fry it, a bit like tempura, but pretty different batter).
We usually use it in soup, to add richness and texture (it’s very crispy at first and turns soggy creamy after a while) as well as taste, or we just have them as a snack, like crisps/chips.
I never thought to use them in other foods, especially stir fries, though, but now I’ve tried it and I will do that again! xD
That is great! Thank you Fool to try this recipe out:D
I just watched Yuka Kinoshita make and eat this and had to google it and I am so glad to find a recipe from you as I always love your recipes! I haven’t made this yet but I am surely going to try it this week! Do you know approximately how much grams of meat you put in? I am going to substitute the squid with just some beef but not sure how much I should prepare?
I am so torn about tenkasu, it’s so easy to make but time consuming, but my local Japanese mart has it for sale but it is so expensive (given that it is just tempura batter!) I can’t do the recipe without it though, tenkasu is SO amazing and I love the crispy element it adds to dishes.
This recipe looks so amazing and easy to cook 👩🍳 especially for a eleven year old! (Me). Thank you so much for this delicious recipe I can cook for my family anytime. I really want to show them that I can cook Japanese food, considering that I live in Japan! Thanks Shihoko! Your website is really helpful to me!
Ohhh Zin 😀 Thank you so much for your lovely comment. You made me happy 😀
I’ll be honest, I haven’t tried this recipe yet (but surely will!) I had a smile to myself when I read through it though as it reminded me of when I was a kid.
In the UK fish and chips is a national dish. Pieces of fish are coated in a batter, much like tempura and deep fried until golden and crispy. A by product of the process is the UK’s version of “tenkasu”, we called it “scratchings” where I’m from; and for a few pence you could buy these from the fish and chip shop with a sprinkling of salt and vinegar. Wonderful!
Hello Ian 😀 Thank you for your lovely comment. I had a fish and chips in London a couple years ago and they were delicious. It is good to know that you can get those tenkasu so that you can make Sobameshi, Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki with it 😀 Happy cooking!
Shihoko san, your recipes are a life saver.
I recently became a step dad and have no clue how to cook (I mainly ate at restaurants or konbini bento). Family are used to their grandmother cooking so have extremely high standards!
Everything I have made from chopstickchronicles has gotten ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ from them!
ありがとうございました！
Konnichiwa, I am glad to know that my recipes are helpful 😀 I know it will be difficult task to please children who are used to delicious grandmother’s home cooking and especially if they are from Japan ;D Happy cooking Japanese food! がんばってね 〜
What a delicious looking meal! I loved reading a bit about the history of the dish, thank you for sharing it. I’m looking forward to making this very soon.
Thank you Joanie. You will love it.
omg this looks incredible! I’ve always wanted to visit Japan, but until then, I’m definitely going to enjoy this at home!
Thank you Sues. yes you should visit Japan, amazing country, food is incredible 😀
deliicious and amazing recipe
thank you very much 🙂