This is one of my favorite ways to have noodles with soup. The noodles and veggies are pretty standard, and another protein like katsu or fish cake can be easily substituted for the pork belly. Adding a fried egg with furikake on top is also an option.

Pork Belly Noodles: #

• Prep time: 5 minutes
• Cook time: 25 minutes

Ingredients (serves 2) #

• 1 lb thin sliced pork belly (should be cut similarly to bacon)
• 1 pack of baby bok choy
• Kikkoman memmi soup base (or something similar, like oden soup base)
• noodles (ramen or udon, or some sort of thicker noodle made from white salted dough)
• cooking oil
• sesame oil
• salt
• pepper
• sesame seeds (optional)

Directions #

1. Cut the bok choy into halves.
2. Cut each slice of pork belly into 1-2” wide pieces, and season with salt and pepper
3. Heat some oil in a pan, and cook the pork belly as you would for bacon. A little bit of browning and crispiness is good, but don’t fry it until it is crunchy. If you have a small pan, splitting the pork up into several batches so that every piece of pork can have contact with the bottom of the pan will make it easier to ensure consistent texture.
4. Once the pork is cooked, set it aside.
5. Boil 1-2 quarts of water in a pot, with the vegetables. Once the water is boiling, remove the vegetables.
6. Add the soup base in the desired ratio, and cook the noodles.
7. Once the noodles are cooked, put the desired amount of noodles and broth into a bowl, and add some sesame oil.
8. Then, add the vegetables and pork belly on top and top with some sesame seeds.