Japanese Cold Tofu Salad

Summer is almost here! Well at least in Seattle, it felt really warm yesterday. Finally I was able to wear my Hawaiian shirt (I have about a dozen of them... yeah, I know) without freezing my ass off. Since it felt like summer, I thought I would make one of the most popular summer side dish (it goes very well with beer, especially in the hot humid Japanese summer). It's really simple to make, it's healthy, and best of all, it tastes really good!

IN JAPANESE: Hiyayakko
CATEGORY: Side dish, Salad, Vegetarian
COOKING METHOD: Fresh
DIFFICULTY: 1 (out of 3)
SERVES: 2 people
LENGTH OF TIME: 3-5 min


INGREDIENTS:
1/4 pack (3 oz / 90g) of tofu (silk, firm, soft, it's up to you, just don't get the sweet one. See TIP: Storing tofu for how you can store the leftover tofu in the fridge)
1 half inch piece of ginger (see TIP: Ginger)
1 green onion
1 tbsp fish flakes [katsuobushi] (omit for vegetarian)
Pinch or two of shredded dried seaweed [nori] (optional)
1 shiso leaf cut in thin slices (optional)
Soy sauce or ponzu (recommneded) for dressing

HOW TO:
Open a pack of tofu, smell it and make sure it doesn't have a strong weird smell (once in a while you get a stinker, so return those to the store, but very rarely does this happen nowadays).

Cut it in bite size on a cutting board.

Put them on individual salad plate/bowl.

Shred the piece of ginger (if you are using the frozen kind, shred while it's still frozen) on top of the tofu.

Cut a green onion into thin tiny pieces.

Sprinkle the tiny green onion pieces, some seaweed, fish flakes, shiso (if you have it) on top of the tofu as well.

Pour some ponzu dressing (if you don't have it, you can use soy sauce instead) and you are done!