Fried udon — I made this once before a while back. This is round two. Last time had plenty of problems. First, it didn’t taste great: I used soy sauce instead of XO sauce. Second, way too oily and way too dark. Third, it took forever. So this time I learned from that: Kept the vegetable prep fast Synced the udon blanching with the stir-frying so everything moves together Bought XO sauce, went easy on the soy sauce, added the greens last. At least efficiency improved a lot — the whole thing took 15 minutes.

Lately I’ve been on a cooking kick, and my efficiency’s been creeping up, so I’ve started trying everything — the easy stuff and the not-so-easy stuff. This time it was udon. Flavor turned out fine in the end. The presentation… not so much. I used the pre-made udon from the supermarket. Obviously I can’t make the noodles myself — you can’t reinvent the wheel every day when you cook.