Yakisoba is one of the popular street foods in Japan. You will always find yakisoba stalls at festivals and markets. At the stalls, massive amount of yakisoba is cooked on a huge teppan (a large iron plate) and when you buy it, a serving portion is taken directly from the teppan and served hot.

Return the duck to the wok and blend everything together before serving.

What is yakisoba? It is stir-fried meat with shredded cabbage and other vegetables tossed with ramen noodles. Yakisoba sauce can be found in most large supermarkets, Asian groceries, or ordered online. It tastes like a blend of Worcestershire and soy, with just a hint of sweetness. In fact, you can make your own by blending 4 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon tomato sauce, 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 teaspoon hoisin sauce and 1/2 teaspoon minced ginger.

Use fresh vegetables if you have time, snap peas, mushrooms, peppers, onions and cabbage. In a hurry? Pick up a pack of frozen stir fry vegetables and a pack of cole slaw base at the market.

Instead of a teppan, we cook ours in a Lodge cast-iron wok. We often stir fry outdoors over a gas burner, so we don’t worry about smoking up the kitchen with the high heat necessary to properly stir fry.

For this recipe, we use the breast, thigh and leg meat from mallard ducks, diced into bite-sized pieces. Stir fry fast and hot in peanut oil to keep it tender.

Start by stir frying the duck, then move it to a warm covered platter while you cook the vegetables.

Traditional noodle choice for yakisoba is ramen, so we simply use 3-4 blocks of traditional ramen (the kind you lived off of in college) minus the flavoring pack. Pour boiling water over the ramen to soften the noodles before stir frying them for a nice roasted flavor.

Pour boiling water over the ramen noodles to soften them before adding to the wok.