Thai yakisoba

Well, no, not really, but this recipe is similar to Japanese yakisoba. It's another dish where noodles are stir-fried in a soy sauce-based sauce, along with meat and greens. It appears as "Soy Sauce Noodles with Beef and Greens" in Quick and Easy Thai. There is another version of it in Real Thai.

The soy sauce in this dish, rather than being shoyu, is kecap manis. This is the sweet dark soy sauce found in southeast Asia; my bottle comes from Indonesia (ABC brand). Three tablespoons of it are mixed with three tablespoons of fish sauce and a half teaspoon each of salt and pepper. The noodles are fettucini-like Thai rice noodles rather than the narrow chukasoba, another difference.

The method is much the same as that used for yakisoba; season the cooking oil with garlic and onion, stir-fry the meat and greens (beef and spinach in this case) and remove from the pan. Add the noodles to the pan and cook, then push them to one side of the pan and add two beaten eggs. Let the eggs almost set, then stir to scramble and mix with the noodles. Return the meat and greens to the pan, add the soy sauce blend, toss and heat through.

This was a nice dinner indeed. The mix of kecap manis and fish sauce gave a sweet yet sharp taste to the sauce, something which none of my yakisoba sauces has had yet. The beef was perfectly done and the noodles sopped up the sauce nicely. Another tasty dish from my new cookbook.