I first met Naomi Molstrom when she worked on the floor above me at my first job out of college. Born in Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture, Naomi came to the U.S. to go to college in 2003. We met around 2008. I had recently lived in Japan for a year with a mother and her two daughters who were incredible home cooks, and I was horribly home-sick for Japanese home cooking — the kind you rarely find in a restaurant in the States. A friend told me about a new restaurant that had opened called Chef Naoko’s, making home-style Japanese food with local ingredients, and I invited Naomi to join me for lunch. We barely knew each other, but seemed equally thrilled for a Japanese set lunch. We started meeting weekly on the first floor and taking the trolley south down 11th to SW Jefferson Street, walking the two blocks west to Naoko’s, and sitting down for one of the most fulfilling, delicious, gorgeous bento lunches you could imagine. This became our ritual. We would talk nonstop the whole way to the restaurant, but once our food arrived, we would eat in reverent silence. Naomi’s all-time favorite was fried oysters. We were both wild for matsutake rice. She once told me her body is 90% comprised of noodles, which I believe. Naomi is someone who loves good food. It’s more than that, even. She is fully herself through the joy that food brings her.
We continued our lunch tradition for a long time, and then she moved with her husband across the country for his medical residency. When they returned to Portland years later, she had a son, and soon another. We stayed in touch, and she began working at Naoko’s — a place lodged in both of our hearts. Her sons attended Richmond Elementary, where I also went to school and studied Japanese from a young age. Our lives kept overlapping but remaining apart, like clouds in the sky floating above and below each other.
That all changed when I began working with Portland Public Schools on a yakisoba noodle. It turned out that Naomi was a regular volunteer in the Richmond Elementary cafeteria, where Japanese mothers had piloted the first yakisoba lunch. It was so popular they brought it back once, and then twice, and then a third time. Portland Public Schools Nutrition Services director Whitney Ellersick noticed the uptick in participation on these days, and she took that success as a cue to bring yakisoba district-wide. But first she wanted a noodle that met federal guidelines, which meant it had to be 50% or higher whole grains. That was the moment when I met Whitney, and committed to developing a noodle for her. And it was also the moment that Naomi and my life intersected again, as we began working closely to make sure our noodle would be a hit with kids, easy for the cafeteria to cook, and true to the tradition of yakisoba in Japan.
From the beginning of this R&D project, I would bring Naomi noodle samples, and she would provide feedback. Soon after our noodles made it to school cafeterias, she encouraged me to work on a sauce that would be less sweet and closer to a traditional Japanese yakisoba flavor than what the district currently procured. We worked together to finalize the yakisoba sauce we hope to bring to districts this fall. Her kindness, enthusiasm, no-nonsense behavior, extraordinary culinary sense, and friendship are invaluable to me. I wouldn’t be where I am today on our yakisoba project without Naomi. Here is her recipe for making a quick classic yakisoba lunch at home, which she serves her two sons.
Makes 3 moderate servings (two hungry kids and a mom, for example!) | Active time: 30 minutes | Difficulty: Easy
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
2 cups shredded cabbage
Optional: 2 stalk celery, thin sliced
Optional protein: 1 pound tofu, chicken, bacon, pork loin, your choice, thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 pound Umi Organic whole grain yakisoba stir-fry noodles
1/2 cup Umi Organic yakisoba sauce
Optional garnishes: bonito flakes, aonori (powdered seaweed), and benishoga (pickled red ginger)
Directions
Heat a large sauté pan or wok over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and heat. Add vegetables (onion, carrot, cabbage, and optional celery) and your choice of protein (if you are using) and sauté until onion turns translucent, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add a small pinch of salt and pepper and mix well.
Push the vegetables and protein to the corner of the pan and add another 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Add noodles. Wait 1 minute without stirring, then loosen the noodles (with tongs or chopsticks) and slowly mix in the vegetables until thoroughly combined. Cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring only once or twice, until noodles are fully heated through.
Add yakisoba sauce and mix well. Taste. Add more sauce if you want a stronger flavor. Continue to cook for about 1 minute to get extra golden color on the noodles.
Serve with optional garnishes: a sprinkle of aonori across the top (about 3 teaspoons), a heap of bonito flakes (about one loose handful), and benishoga (about 1 tablespoon).
Photo of yakisoba by Naomi Molstrom. Photos of Naomi by Shawn Linehan.
