Cook the soba noodles: Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Add the noodles. When they come to the boil, add one cup of cool water. Let them come to the boil again. Repeat this twice. When they come to the boil the last time, turn down the heat and cook gently till softened but still firm. Drain in a colander and rinse in cold water. Put in a bowl and refrigerate until cold (although I have made this directly after rinsing really thoroughly and it was ok).

Mix all ingredients other than the noodles and spring onions in a bowl. Drop in the noodles and toss thoroughly with chopsticks. Divide between 4 bowls and scatter with spring onions.

If you wanted to, you could add thinly sliced pieces of fresh bean curd too.

From Stephanie Alexander's amazing book, "The Cook's Companion". Its subtitle is "The complete book of ingredients and recipes for the Australian kitchen", and that's pretty bloody accurate. I think the only thing it's ever failed me on is tamarillos. It's about $90 but it is *so* worth it.

Soba is of course also lovely with the soba dipping sauce (yamaki soba tsuyu) you can buy in bottles from Asian food shops. I've seen it in Burlington and the one on Vulture St at West End.