Because our house is old and terribly insulated, the dog days of summer can be very uncomfortable. This last week, with temperatures reaching and overtaking 100 degrees, my thermostat has read 85 on more than one occasion.
Chilly, if you’re a reptile. But I’m more of a waddly little penguin, so it’s miserable. I have the fans going in every room, and I’m not embarrassed to admit I’ve spent the week in my underwear while the baby roams around in just a shirt and his diaper.
Forget classy, we’re going for cool.
A side effect of the heat is an awful bout of insomnia. I suffered through it for a couple of nights, but found that I was unable to think, write, function or properly execute acceptable hygiene practices.
So last night, I was determined to fall asleep at a decent hour. I popped two Simply Sleep, which are Tylenol PM’s without the Tylenol (basically Benadryl) and sat down to read email before bed.
Only, my email was chock full o’ blog subscriptions. So I began to comment. If I got to you in the beginning, I’m sure what I wrote was coherent. My deepest apologies to anyone I visited 20 minutes post medication.
I expected to nod off in the middle of writing, praising someone’s heartfelt blog entry with, “Great posssssssssssssssssss” as my head hit the keyboard, but a funny thing happened instead.
I was AWAKE!
So I got on the Twitter. This could have been bad, but looking back, most of my posts seem intelligible, so I’m not too worried today. I talked about parenting, met a bunch of dad bloggers and learned about something called a Tripel, and I’m pretty sure I told Jessica I was coming to visit her in Nevada.
I also had this mad craving for cold noodles. I could picture in my mind exactly what they would look and taste like. I knew that Sriracha would be involved.
It became a mission.
I dumped varying amounts of soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, fish sauce and yes, the ever-tasty, always-good-in-a-pinch Sriracha in a bowl, whisked it around into an aromatic, savory nectar, and set about boiling the only noodles I had – some leftover Ramen from when my nephews were here.
Don’t judge. It was amazing. I rinsed the Ramen in cold water to chill it a bit, and ate the whole darn thing with chopsticks. Each bite was better than the one before: spicy, sweet, tangy – but most of all cold.
It was more refreshing after a hot, miserable day than any popsicle or lemonade. Ice cream pales in comparison.
What? I was high on antihistamines.
Anyway, I’m including the recipe below because after I go buy more rice wine vinegar and sesame seed oil, I’m going to try and make it for lunch today. I’m not sure if I can recreate it just so, but I’ll give it my best shot. We’ll see if it was the noodly paradise of my dreams, or if I was just stoned.
Noodly Near-midnight Nosh
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 tbps soy sauce
1 tbsp Sriracha
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil
Splash fish sauce
1 pkg Ramen (just the noodles)
Boil Ramen. Drain and rinse with cool water until chilled. Mix vinegar, soy sauce, Sriracha, sugar, oil and fish sauce. Top with noodles. Swish around a bit. Slurp.
*Update: It tastes just as good sober! If you’re digging it, try this recipe from earlier in the year! I love the way the flavors combine in it.
Also! I’m linking this up with Bruna at Bees With Honey for Let’s Bee Friends. This week, she’s featuring Kim from Mama’s Monologues. I love Kim because she’s frank, funny, and she can rap.
Yummy! I think I might try this too! Lots of the ingredients you mentioned are often part of asian dipping sauces that are perfect for won tons/dumplings. Maybe add a bit of Aji-Mirin in it too. Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce is also good to add if Sriracha is too hot for some!
Sriracha…too hot? Such blasphemy.
OMG, I was on the Twitter last night, and you were talking about some noodle concoction. Hey. Glad it worked out. Not to be a downer, but don’t get your hopes up too much about the lunch thing. I once ate week-old cold pizza out of a mini-fridge in college after a night of debauchery, saying with each bite it was the most delectable thing I’d ever savored. And then I had a false sense of how good week-old pizza is. It’s not good. Not at all. (I discovered this some months later after a night of lamery. It’s only good when you’re good and sauced. Boo.)
You just made me so sad! And it’s too early for lunch so I can’t go find out. But my mouth just started watering thinking about it, so maybe it was that good. Oh, I hope so.
I can’t wait to hear the update. I’ll wait until then before I decide if I want to try to make this or not. It sounds pretty good though…
Ok…I’m an idiot. I just clicked on your twitter update to get here to comment in the first place. Duh! I’m glad they were just as good…now I’ll try them!
Let me know how you fix yours up! I’m interested to see what variations everyone tries.
I’ve never been able to bring myself to buy fish sauce. It just sounds nasty. However, I have no problem eating eel sauce at the sushi place.
It smells terrible, and by itself is awful. But there is something that happens when you mix it with other sauces, and it adds just the right tang. I love it with my grilled vietnamese pork.
I have never tried fish sauce. There just seems to be something not right about it.
But the waddly penguin line? Love that! That’s me too.
Is that where I got it? I was thinking about an animal that liked cold, and “penguin” popped into my head like I had read it earlier.
Asian food rocks. That is all.
‘Nuff said.
Ha! You did tell me you were coming to Nevada. We are having a secret meeting with martinis and cream cheese.
My husband and kid like to eat Ramen with Sririacha (i have no idea how to spell it).
Hope it starts cooling down so you can get some sleep.
Well, yeah, cause cream cheese goes soooo well with martinis. It’s 85 again today inside, but I’m calling an AC guy tomorrow. This is some bullsheet.
Oh my goodness, I feel for you! Our old house was not very well insulated and it never stayed cold enough in the summer and warm enough in the winter. Thank goodness we had a fireplace.
Your noodles sound super yummy!!!
They were delectable! But they didn’t change the fact that it’s still hot as balls in here.
Very interesting. You turn into quite the gourmet when you are under the influence.
Gourmet ramen? Bahahaha! The only sleeping med that seems to actually put me out is ambien, and that stuff scares me.
I dont even need the help of sleep aids to leave odd comments. Whenever I get tired I leave some pretty whacky comments. Ive probably offended a few people at some point. lol
People get offended in the bloggy world? No. Say it ain’t so.
I am SO going to try out your recipe. You had me howling your post was so funny! I can’t even imagine it being that hot here where I live. I think I would die!
I hope you like it, and don’t spit it out and curse my name.
Laughter is wonderful…and you just gave me a great dose. I am staying up late tonight waiting on updates for my grandchild to be born. I needed the laugh! Thanks.
Congrats, grandma!
This was hilarious…I hope after your midnight snack, you were able to get some sleep!
Little bits, here and there. Mostly tossing and turning! But we’re getting the AC looked at tomorrow, whew.
This post is hilarious!
I must follow you on twitter for more – just in case it stays this hot and any more sleep aids are involved.
xo
babymama
Awesome! And as for Twitter…I apologize for the fart jokes in advance.
Hopping over from Bees with Honey. I can totally relate on the old house with poor insulation and insomnia. Thank goodness I do have air conditioners in the bedroooms but it’s not enough after being warm all day. I spend many a sleepless night tossing and turning. I think next time I have to take a cue from you and whip up something in the kichen.
You’ll be amazed at what heat exhaustion can do for your culinary talents!
I love mixing those asian sauces with just about everything. We marinate almost all of our meat in some sort of combo of those sauces.
Nom nom nom!
I really enjoy talking to other parents on twitter. I am not so sure about those cold noodles. Maybe because it has been so chilly on the west coast and I can only think of warm things.
Hm, chilly you say? I might have to look into this west coast thing.
In college, someone bought me a cook book called “101 Ways to Eat Ramen Noodles”. I think there was even a recipe for ramen brownies. I wonder what happened to that book…
ramen brownies? GACK.
WOW, now that’s my kind of dinner to make! Easy. Yet it looks Delish!
I will admit, it is better late at night! And you do need to have the craving!
This looks delicious! And spicy is good. I was eating wasabi plain the other night. Haha. Just wanted to finally show up here and follow your blog. Even before I joined the competition, I was voting for you! You were/are one of my favorites and I hope you make it far!
Hi Chess, welcome. I grew up with a Cajun family, so spicy is definitely our thing. I like that Sriracha has a different spice than the cayenne I grew up with. Good luck this week!
Not sure I could handle the Sriracha, but the rest sounds totally delish! Well, at least you had fun on your meds & came up with something great to eat that was cold….even if it didn’t send you to dreamland. Hope you’ve been able to get some sleep since!
Oh yea….and now I’m seriously craving some noodles!!! :>