Let’s Make Anai’s Yakisoba!

If you’re a fan of Aggretsuko, try this recipe on for size.

In the world of Aggretsuko, there are a lot of food references. You can see Retsuko get ramen with Tadano in Hokkaido, and of course, there’s that time that Retsuko decides to make yakisoba for the company’s family day.

Spoiler: she sucked at it, and her yakisoba was said to “taste like the bottom of a shoe.” It was only thanks to her aggressively paranoid coworker Anai that the day was saved.

How did he do it?

Simple. He’s the king of bento in the office, and it all came out into the light after he started prepping the yakisoba himself. But, how did he make it? I decided to kludge something similar together for a sweet, spicy, and savory treat.

My personal recipe isn’t quite traditional, but it’s delicious and if you add the right amount of mayo, has an extra creaminess to it that offsets everything beautifully. Yami sent me some goods, so let’s talk about what I did with them.

First, what’s yakisoba?

via Yakisoba

The best way to describe yakisoba is that it’s “Japanese chow mein.” These are soba noodles that have been fried up with a special yakisoba sauce. Traditionally, it’s a mix of Worcestershire, soy, and ketchup sauces — among others.

In recent years, mustard and mayonnaise have become popular additions to yakisoba recipes. This is because…Well, I honestly don’t know what sparked it, all I know is that it adds a very creamy element that ups the umami flavor immensely.

Among people from Japan, yakisoba is a common weeknight dinner. It also is considered to be commonplace “street food” or “fair food,” not unlike street tacos here. Now that we got that out the way, let’s get to the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 2 large sausages (I used duck with fennel sausages because they’re my favorite)
• 1/2 pound thin-sliced beef
• 1/3 of a bag of shredded cabbage and carrots
• 2 boxes Myojo Yakisoba Spicy Mayo and Mustard Flavor
• Mayonnaise, crushed red pepper, and mustard, to taste
• 1 packet Goya Chicken Soup Boullion Powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons each minced garlic and ginger paste(optional)
• Dumpling sauce, to taste
• Sesame oil

Here’s how to make it…

via Sanrio

1. Start by cutting the sausages in two down the center of the sausage. Then, cut the bottoms of each half of the sausage into small strips. These will act as the “octopus legs” as the sausage cooks.
2. Bring a large skillet coated with sesame oil to medium heat. Add the cabbage, carrots, sausage, garlic, ginger, and thin-sliced beef to the skillet. Season with dumpling sauce.
3. Cook these ingredients until the meat is fully cooked and the cabbage is heated evenly. In the meanwhile, prepare the noodles in a separate pot or by heating them up in the package. Keep the flavor packets and vegetable packets aside as you prepare them.
4. Drain the noodles, and add them to the skillet with the meat and veggies. Stir in the flavor packets that were included in the boxes, as well as the dried seasoning and spices. Add additional mayonnaise, crushed red pepper, chicken soup powder, and mustard to taste, if necessary. *
5. Continue to stir and cook until the noodles and everything is a nice rich brown. It should look a lot like the “lo mein” noodles that you get from takeout restaurants, but with a little bit more creaminess to them.
6. Serve in a bowl. Be prepared to have people ask for seconds and thirds.

*Note: Some folks also enjoy adding additional soy sauce for this step.