turning japanese, I think I'm turning japanese, I really think so

Admit it, the first time you heard that song's chorus, you thought the lyrics were "dirty Japanese-a."

I have an inescapable obsession with clever post titles, as though no one will bother to read if I just title it "Yakisoba for dinner" or leave it labeled with just the date.  While I may be right about that, I also enjoy using snippets of song lyrics as titles to see how many people know the song well enough to have it stuck in their heads for a couple of hours.  I don't know anyone who doesn't know "Turning Japanese" (if that's actually the name), so you all hate me right now.

Tonight's dinner, if it isn't obvious, was Yakisoba from The Accidental Vegan.  It's a relatively simple recipe, which makes sense, as Devra asserts this as a fairly common dish on Japanese tables. 

I love the noodles I used - they soak up the extra sauce so easily and it makes the whole dish (whatever dish it may be) tastier.  I use these noodles every time a recipe calls for rice noodles/vermicelli.  I get them at Whole Foods and they don't have a brand name that I can read because aside from the place where it says "Ho Fan (Vermicelli)" indicating that these noodles are indeed the ones I seek, there are very few things written in English.  The few phrases/cooking instructions which are in English are amusing enough that I have meant to share every time I've made them recently - here are the highlights:

Non-fried  Health is important :)

Noodle in soup (complete with a picture): Add with soup base and subsidiary food, ready to serve.
Noodle for stir-frying: stir fry the noodle with subsidiary food, ready to serve.

I love the "subsidiary food" thing, but these cooking instructions are the best:
Sufficient water is prepared.
Noodle should only be added when the water is fully-boiled.
Extra addition of meat and vegetables are suggested for palatable enhancement (how awesome is that phrase!).

This is my pretty salad.  It was pleasing to the eye and the palate, so I wanted to take a picture of just my salad.  I've enhanced it with orange bell pepper slices, half a huge chopped strawberry, and cubed jicama (pronounced HEE-ka-ma).

Angst was waiting at the table when I put dinner down.  He really likes salad and is one sniff short of remembering his love for strawberries.  Fortunately, he decided he didn't want to try his luck with chopsticks, so he vacated my seat.