Sometimes in anime, there are scenes where the food looks really delicious, right? In Japan, it’s called “Anime food” (Ani-Meshi), and fans share their assumed recipes on the internet.
Recently, I watched “Suzumeno Tojimari,” the third film by Makoto Shinkai. In it, the main character Suzume serves Fried Udon with Potato Salad to the female owner of a bar she meets during her journey. It looks so delicious that I wanted to make it myself. So, I looked up the recipe and made it, and now I’d like to share it with you.
Since there are some unique Japanese ingredients involved, I’ll share the official recipe from the website and provide some additional explanations on it.
Basically, this dish is just a combination of fried udon and Japanese-style potato salad, which is a dish that was mostly inspired by Western cuisine but has become a common household dish in Japan.
Ingredients for 1 serving:
- Udon noodles: 1 serving
- Vegetables (carrot, cabbage, bean sprouts)
- Pork belly: 70g
- Water: 30g
- Potato salad: 90g
*In Japan, potato salad is easy to buy, but if you can’t find it, refer to the following youtube for how to make it. - Heavy cream: 1 tablespoon (optional)
- Egg: 1
- Okonomiyaki sauce: 3 tablespoons* *In Japan, okonomiyaki sauce is also easy to find, but if you can’t find it, you can substitute with mentsuyu.
- Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes): to taste
- Soy sauce for oysters: 1 teaspoon* *In Japan, soy sauce for oysters is available, but if it’s difficult to find, you can substitute with mentsuyu. (e.g. Kikkoman Memmi Noodle Soup Base)
Instructions:
- Mix 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise and 1 tablespoon of fresh cream into the potato salad to make the sauce.
- Cut the pork belly into bite-sized pieces.
- Fry an egg in a frying pan and set aside.
- Add oil to the frying pan and stir-fry the pork belly.
- Season the pork with salt, then remove from the pan once cooked.
- Stir-fry the vegetables, seasoning them with salt as well.
- Add the cooked pork and udon noodles to the pan (add water to loosen the noodles if necessary).
- Add the okonomiyaki sauce and oysters soy sauce.
- Remove the udon noodles from the pan and pour the sauce made in step 1 over them to complete the dish.
Following is the referred official recipe.