what i made for dinner :: soba with marinated beef and tomatoes

another cooking light recipe (from november 1999) :: soba with marinated beef and tomatoes. this could potentially be a decent dinner (although ian didn't like it ... surprise, surprise!). a huge plus is that it's pretty quick to make; i marinated the beef and portobellos before leaving for ian's french class and whipped up the sauce and boiled the noodles in about 20 minutes after getting home.

some changes/recommendations ::

• turns out flank steak is expensive. instead of a full pound of meat, i used half a pound and substituted sliced portobello mushroom (one medium-sized cap, around a quarter of a pound) for the rest. more veggies are a good thing, right? cheaper meal is a good thing, right?
• i made too much soba and it was too mushy. i recommend making two bunches of soba (which i think is around 7 oz uncooked) and preparing it so it finishes cooking after the sauce is done (or is nearing completion). i made three bunches of soba and it sat for a few minutes until the sauce finished cooking, at which point the noodles got much too soft.
• the sauce was on the bland side (maybe because i made too much soba?) so i would try to liven the flavor up with either some ginger, sesame oil (instead of the vegetable oil), chile, and/or more garlic.
• i didn't have any oyster sauce so i used japanese tonkatsu sauce instead (and omitted the sugar since tonkatsu sauce is sweet).