Spicy eggplant mazemen
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I first ate mazemen (or mazesoba, as it is alternatively called) during my 2022 visit home to Sydney. It was at the time when Australia had just reopened to the world, our first trip home in four years. Sydney, like the world, had changed greatly during that time. We had changed too. We arrived to an altered city, one that felt, at times, foreign. Parts of the city I knew all my life were no longer there.
The Sydney Entertainment Centre, an arena located on the fringe of Chinatown, was a modestly sized venue by international standards. But it is where I had seen countless concerts as a young person. It was where I saw George Michael perform for the first time in 1988, and, where decades later, we took the kids to see The Wiggles. A lot of memories in that building. But on our last visit, it was gone. In its place was a new dining district called Darling Square. My friend, the journalist and food writer Lee Tran Lam, who I rely on for most of my Sydney vegetarian food recommendations, had told me about IIko Mazesoba, Australia’s first mazesoba restaurant. Being Winter, their seasonal special was a cheese and mushroom mazesoba topped with Winter black truffle. I ate that dish twice during that visit. It is a meal that immediately attached itself to my flavour memory.
Last week, I ate another excellent mazemen. We had a short stopover in Ottawa on our way from Montreal to Toronto and Google found us a ramen restaurant around the corner from our hotel with a 4.7 rating. There was a line outside Sansotei and there seemed to be some buzz amongst the gathered locals that this ramen was worth the wait. I am always skeptical of hype…and lines. But Sansotei proved that sometimes buzz is justified. The vegetarian ramen on the menu was a mazemen, a brothless noodle dish with eggplant peperoncini, corn and green onion. It was sublime. The eggplant was creamy and deeply savoury, with a healthy kick of spice, perfect with the chewy noodles.
In mazemen, the soup is replaced with an umami sauce. The literal translation means ‘mixed noodles’, describing the way the noodles, toppings and sauce should be tossed together before slurping.
My mazemen recipe this week is inspired by the one I ate at Sansotei. I’ve slow cooked eggplant on the stovetop, until it melts away into a creamy, and intensely savoury ‘jam’. When tossed with ramen noodles, it becomes a silky coating which imparts rich umami. The eggplant ‘jam’ can be used as you would a favourite condiment, smeared on toast, as a side with silky scrambled eggs or tossed through a grain salad. Friendly advice, you may want to make a double quantity.
This week
Cook…or prepare an universal curry paste, and keep on hand to create Thai green curry noodle soup, stir fried curry rice cakes, snow pea stir fry, curry baked risotto or simply to stir through scrambled eggs or combine with coconut milk for a quick soup. This new recipe on ABC Everyday is a beginner curry - and by beginner, it is meant to be quite mild, with just a hint of heat but rich with aromatics. It is designed as a base recipe that can be served as is to kids or spice newbies, but it also can be spiked with more heat if you like it hot. I like to make it in bulk, divide it into small containers or ziplock bags and store in the freezer until I need it. A great meal prep idea.
Eat soy sauce noodles, the classic Cantonese dish (that I often ate for breakfast growing up) which I’ve amped up with cabbage and fried eggs in this recipe. Noodles are a great meal for these in-between seasons. Hang onto summer a bit longer with this basil and tomato stir-fry or this one pot tomato pasta (this one is made predominantly with tomato paste so you can make it whatever season you are in).
Spicy eggplant mazemen
© Hetty Lui McKinnon for To Vegetables, With Love