Rei-men cold noodles at Ginza Aster

Now we are heading into the warmer months it’s always a time to enjoy the popular rei-men or Cold noodle dish. This dish was introduced to Japan in the 1950s and quickly became popular throughout the country ,especially in summer.
Ginza Aster has revised their limited summer special menu to feature no less than seven different varieties of this healthy refreshing dish. From the standard Gomoku Rei-men, featuring crab meat and in-house made cha shiu pork with a vinegar base sweetish soup, to a seafood version featuring abalone. This is another great example of Ginza Aster taking a dish that is pretty much similar everywhere and improving and enhancing into something quite exceptional.
There are two ‘secrets’ to making Ginza Aster’s rei-men dishes so good - simple but both essential. The first is their noodles, which are made in house to enable them to serve the freshest possible noodles everyday. The second is their soup, or tare. There are two different varieties – sweet vinegar, and sesame. The swwet vinegar versoin is made form a unique blend of soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and sesame oil. The sesame tare, which is used in their chicken banbanji rei-men, achieves a unique balance of sesame flavor vs. sweetness vs. acidity. The rei-men are available with all course meals, as well as a la-carte. I highly recommend crab, fresh tomato, and avocado with unusually, basil dressing - This is a fantastic , refreshing dish. Great for a warm summers day.