There are countless amounts of videos flooding social media detailing recipes from scratch, but I am always scared that it won’t taste as good as it looks. This issue, I decided to finally try out one of these recipes for myself. While I’m certainly no cook, I enjoy seeing how creators combine different flavors and textures to make a final dish, so why not try it out myself? I will be attempting to make a soba recipe from Justine Snacks.
Comprehension: 9/10
This recipe was pretty easy to understand. My only complaint is that she is vague about how much olive oil to use when frying the mushrooms. A “glug” of olive oil is subjective and I had to add more 2 times.
Ease of Use: 8/10
As an amateur chef, her instructions were easy to follow. In addition, the recipe used simple ingredients that I could find at Nob Hill. I think the hardest part was boiling the eggs because I cracked two of them while dropping them into the water. However, I would avoid her instructions to keep the water boiling while you pull the noodles out. Instead, I suggest straining the soba as usual and boiling more water because I had to add more water anyways after removing the noodles. Also, boil the noodles for five-ish minutes instead of four—the noodles were a little too hard for my taste.
Taste: 8.5/10
Overall, the flavors of mushroom, herbs, and chili oil blended well. The sauce was a little thick for me, so I suggest adding it conservatively. I was a really big fan of the fried mushroom bit, so I hope to use it in another recipe. I would definitely make this again, but make small tweaks.
