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My kids can’t get enough of the savory and sweet flavor of this dish, which makes me smile because I still remember the moment I first tasted kitsune udon—in elementary school. Back in Japan, my grade school served meals to its students, and these noodles were one of my favorite lunchtime treats. I know both you and your kids will love them, too: they’re easy to prepare and the sweet and tangy flavor lasts and lasts.

Su means “plain” in Japanese, which is how this dish got its name. But plain doesn’t mean boring—this is a simple and light dish that I love when I want to enjoy the chewy texture of udon noodles without eating anything too heavy. Wakame is a nutritious seaweed that’s found in many Japanese dishes. You can include spinach in this recipe, too, if you’d like. Just quickly blanch the spinach in boiling water, cool in an ice bath, and drain before adding to the individual bowls.

Loaded with nutrients, wakame has been an important part of the Japanese diet for centuries. And besides being good for you, it has a wonderful flavor that’s both briny and sweet. I love this seaweed and eat a ton of it. Wakame is also very convenient: because it’s dried, it can be stored for months, but it takes only minutes to reconstitute. This quick and easy soba dish is a delicious way to introduce this versatile ingredient to American cooks, especially when paired with fresh snow peas and tangy onions. Give it a try; I know you’ll love wakame as much as I do.

This summer recipe centers on a versatile ingredient that’s beloved in Japan but almost unknown here, one that I know you’ll enjoy. It’s called yamaimo, or mountain yam. This root has a nice, fresh taste, with a delicately sweet, nutty flavor and lots of umami, or sense of savoriness. The most popular variety, which you can find in Asian markets, looks like a tan-colored baton. Peel the skin and grate its white flesh. Raw yamaimo has a liquidy, slippery texture that might take getting used to, but it pairs beautifully with the toothsome soba in this dish. I’ve also added okra, a cooling Southern favorite that’s very popular in Japan.

While the underlying dashi is the same, udon broth is not as strongly flavored as soba broth because these wheat flour noodles absorb liquid easier than do the hard buckwheat of soba. You can freeze this broth for up to a month or keep in the refrigerator for up to a week and use for a number of dishes, which is what we do at my home because my family is crazy for udon!

I still remember the first time I tasted this dish as a child, when my parents took me to a famous shrine near my hometown. Soba sushi was the signature dish there, and restaurants near the shrine served it for lunch. This recipe makes two kinds of soba sushi: soba rolls and abura-age sushi. It has a lot of steps, but don’t worry, it’s not very complicated. The result is worth it: delicious finger food with layers of flavor and texture. Kampyo, the dried squash in the soba rolls, is a traditional ingredient with a delicate sweetness that you can find in Asian markets. Marinated abura-age is deep-fried tofu that opens up like pocket bread. Soba sushi is a perfect appetizer or party treat that will wow your guests. This dish also travels well, so you can add it to a lunchbox or picnic basket. You can also prepare this recipe up to a day ahead of serving. Just be sure to wrap it well and store in the refrigerator before serving.

This soba gnocchi is one of the most popular dishes at my Chicago restaurant, Takashi. My customers love it and often ask me how to prepare it at home. Well, here’s the answer! The recipe is a little challenging, but I guarantee you it will more than impress the guests at your next dinner party. You can prepare the gnocchi in advance, and even freeze it (be sure to coat the gnocchi with vegetable oil before refrigerating or freezing). You can also prepare the celery root sauce ahead of time. And like the gnocchi, you can freeze it, too.

My hometown of Mito is known throughout Japan as “Natto City” in recognition of our devotion to these fermented soybeans. Natto has a wonderful nutty flavor and aroma, and I’ve loved it since I was a kid. Serving it with soba is a terrific introduction to this nutritious and ancient naturally preserved ingredient. When you open a packet of natto, the beans will be sticky and thready, but don’t let that put you off. This dish makes a beautiful presentation when it’s served. Just make sure you mix together all the ingredients very well before you eat to combine the flavors.

This dish packs flavor with history. Take the word nanban, which refers to foreign influence in Japanese cooking. But duck is native to Japan, so what’s so foreign here? Back in the seventh century, the emperor issued a decree forbidding meat, and the country followed a Buddhist diet of fish and vegetables for more than a thousand years. Once Japanese started eating meat again in the nineteenth century, they called dishes like duck soba nanban—duck is something a foreigner would eat. It’s a convention that continues to this day.

Here is my standard dashi recipe. The kelp is loaded with savoriness, a taste we call “umami” in Japan. This recipe is for 2 quarts of dashi, but you can easily double the quantities and freeze leftovers for up to 2 months.

This dish looks simple to prepare, but in Japan it’s the ultimate test for a soba chef. Why? To put it simply, the chef has nowhere to hide. Because this dish is just broth and noodles, a soba master has to prepare both perfectly. In fact, tasting cold soba is the way we judge the quality of a good soba restaurant. At home, of course, it’s a different story. Japanese love preparing this quick, refreshing dish in the summer. The aromatic garnishes are classics that nicely accent the toothsome noodles. Just don’t worry about cooking it “perfectly”—leave that to the soba chefs.

You can whip up these fast and easy noodles in 15 minutes. They’re a typical lunchtime dish in Japan, and the hot soba and broth are especially comforting on a frigid winter day. If you have any leftover chicken, pork, shrimp, or grilled fish in the refrigerator, you can easily add them to this dish, if you’d like. Be sure to shred the chicken or pork. You can also try this soba with cubed firm tofu, which complements the garnishes nicely.

My brother-in-law and I have a long-standing ritual whenever I visit my family in Japan: he welcomes me home with a plate of his own freshly made soba noodles. I can’t think of a more gracious—and delicious—greeting. I love the bright buckwheat flavor and irresistible nutty, sweet aroma of fresh soba, a sensation you simply can’t fully experience with dry noodles or fresh-frozen. This recipe is a bit challenging, true, but worth it. A few notes: First, professional soba makers use a “soba kiri” to cut the noodles, an expensive, specialized blade 12 inches long and 6 inches wide. But at home, a large kitchen knife works perfectly. Second, cooks in Japan traditionally use a lightweight wooden box as a guide for cutting soba, but anything lightweight with a straight edge will work fine, even a plastic ice cube tray. And finally, but most important: cut noodles should be cooked and served immediately. You can freeze any unrolled dough, well wrapped, for up to a month, or store fresh dough in the refrigerator for a few days.

Tsukumen means, literally, “dipping ramen,” and it’s a dish that’s taken Japan by storm. When I was growing up, we didn’t eat ramen this way, but now you can find this dish offered in shops across the country. It’s not hard to understand why—eating ramen in this deconstructed way gives you a chance to enjoy the noodle and each of the garnishes on its own, dipped in the flavorful broth. This dish is also a delicious play between cold ramen and hot broth. Think of it as noodle nouvelle cuisine! Naruto has a signature spiral swirl, and interestingly enough, it’s an ingredient used almost exclusively for ramen (and on rare occasions, udon).

Spice alert: this ramen is guaranteed to make you sweat. These snappy noodles are very popular in Japan, even in the summer—some people, I guess, don’t find our sultry and humid hot season sticky enough! I, for one, prefer this ramen in the winter, because its rich pork and miso broth is warm and comforting.

This is a simple recipe that combines wonderful, distinct flavors. Japanese black vinegar, also referred to as aged rice vinegar, is an artisanal product naturally brewed from rice with a complexity akin to a fine balsamic vinegar. The hot oil adds terrific flavor and great aroma, a perfect accent to this dish—but be very careful heating the oil.

In this hearty ramen, stir-fried vegetables are combined with seafood and pork to create a rich, filling dish with lots of flavors and textures. When I was growing up, this was one of my favorite foods after baseball practice—the noodles refueled me quickly, and deliciously, and helped me stave off hunger until dinnertime. These days, it’s the perfect antidote to a gray, frigid winter day.

Call this my Japanese-inspired take on cobb salad, except that it’s all vegetarian. It’s a perfect dish for summertime eating. I love sweet and crispy hearts of palm, which are native to Latin America. Try to buy them fresh, if possible, but canned works fine, too. The umeboshi-yuzu vinaigrette lends the vegetables an irresistible tangy and citrusy flavor. Ramen noodles served chilled are springy, chewy, and absolutely delicious.

Like Miso Ramen (page 19), Shio Ramen hails from the northern Japanese city of Sapporo, and is a perfect antidote to a frigid winter day. Shio means “salt” in Japanese, and indeed, the clear broth has an appealing sea-salt flavor. These noodles are a relatively late addition to the ramen lineup, but they’re now popular across Japan. This is the classic recipe, which is loaded with fresh vegetables.

This is Japan’s classic ramen, the one I crave most when I want to go back to the basics. Also known as “Tokyo-style” ramen, it’s the way ramen was originally prepared after it was adopted from Chinese cooking. Native to, yes, Tokyo, it’s always served with the same venerable toppings, which I include in the recipe below.