Hiyashi Chuka (冷やし中華)

With how hot and humid Japanese summers are, I grew up eating Hiyashi Chuka (冷やし中華) every summer. It’s a popular Japanese dish consisting of chilled ramen noodles topped with a variety of colorful ingredients. It’s a refreshing option, perfect for hot weather.

The dish typically features thin slices of proteins like ham or chicken (I used leftover rotiserrie chicken I bought from Costco) vegetables such as cucumber and carrots, and strips of omelet.

The noodles are usually served cold and drizzled with a tangy soy sauce-based or sesame dressing, which adds flavor and enhances the dish’s appeal. Hiyashi Chuka is not only delicious but also highly customizable, allowing for a variety of toppings based on personal preference.

Let’s Talk About
Food Waste

I feel bad when I waste food. Especially having a garden that takes months of prep and hard work.

For example, I didn’t buy a Costco card until this year because I don’t like the pressure of eating bulk perishable foods before they go bad. I’m sure many of you reading this feel similarly.

It often seems hard to get through all the leftovers that build up in my fridge since I’m constantly creating new recipes! In the future, I want to raise my own chickens, mainly to give them any food scraps that I’m unable to eat. For now, I will just dream about that day since currently, I do not have the space or permission to have chickens where I live haha

Creating my own compost is another potential way I’ve found to minimize my food waste. In the past, I researched buying a compost tumbler for my garden, but I don’t have the space for it since my yard is so small. From that point, a kitchen composter made its way onto my bucket list.

Recently, I’ve been using the Reencle (pronounced “wrinkle”) composter and am super impressed. It looks and works just like a trash can and is used for organic products (not including bones, fruit pits, or shells). The machine heats and churns its contents to allow microorganisms to break down food scraps. In a matter of weeks, it creates compost that I am able to add back into my garden – which, to tie this all back into the dish I made for this Hiyashi Chuka, incorporated my garden tomatoes and cucumbers.

It’s been an incredible shift feeling excitement now when I have food scraps from old leftovers. Additionally, I’ve loved throwing in cooking scraps such as the fat I trim from chicken thighs (possibly the meat I use most) and vegetable peelings. Finally, I have also thrown in bread & fruit that have gone bad. It’s addictive to see the food scraps disappear and turn into an increasingly fertile compost!

In Japan, pretty much everything is recycled: plastic, paper, metals, food waste, batteries, glass etc. Fun fact: Public trash cans are rare in Japan, but somehow it’s also one of the cleanest countries in the world. It seems counterintuitive, but environmental stewardship is integral to Japanese culture.

Coming back to the U.S., I’m always surprised by how few recycling options there are, especially because it actually costs money to recycle where I live.

Even though I still can’t easily recycle most products, decreasing my food waste and nourishing my garden through Reencle has been HUGE! Just like knowing what I eat, I love feeling confident that what I am feeding my garden is actually organic and nutrient-rich. I doubt I will ever live without a kitchen composter again.

Noodles

Packaged ramen noodles are typically made from wheat flour, water, salt, and kansui (a type of alkaline mineral water), which gives them their characteristic chewy texture and yellow color; they come in various forms, including instant noodles that are precooked and dried or fresh noodles that need to be boiled before use.

Here is a link to the ramen noodles I used and would recommend using!