Place 500 ml water in a saucepan over medium heat.
When small air bubbles form at the bottom of the saucepan, add bonito flakes to the saucepan and turn the heat off immediately.
Leave the bonito flakes in the hot water for a few minutes.
Place a kitchen paper towel in a sieve over a jug. Drain the bonito flakes.
Squeeze more bonito flake dashi stock out with your hands. *2
Egg Drop Soup "Kakitamajiru"
Place the dashi stock in a saucepan and bring it to simmer.
Add usukuchi soy sauce.
In a small bowl mix katakuriko and water.
Add katakuriko mixture into the saucepan and stir.
Break two eggs in a small bowl and beat the eggs.
Pour the eggs into the saucepan gently and count to 5, then stir gently.
Turn the heat off and garnish with mitsuba, or green shallots. *3
Notes
*1 It will be perfect if you can make dashi stock from scratch, but if you can not make it, you can replace this with 500 ml water with 1tsp of dashi stock powder dissolved. *2 Do not discard this. You can make rice seasoning out of this left over. *3 This soup is often garnished with Mitsuba but if you are unable to access Mitsuba, it can be replaced with scallions and young sprouts such as kale I used in the post.