They say these noodles have no carbs - but is that possible? I cannot read Japanese so I am not sure.....

Thanks - Orchid

The websites seem to indictate zero carbs, but the packets I have bought do say 3.0carbs per 180gms on stickers used for translation.

I can't be sure about fibre counts being subtracted or not, but it is a reputed good source of fibre and the ECC may well be close to zero. Some manufacturers use a tiny bit of rice flour I think to help the consistency, as I have see it in listed ingredients and that may be where the carb comes from.
The 180gms packs I buy are a good serving size (almost too much depending what I eat it with) and fills me up really well especially with thai green curry (mince, beef or chicken) with which it goes really well Also tried it with a spicier version of bolognaise sauce and it wasn't all that bad.

Very sorry to double post, but I had a question for Karen, and anyone else out there....I have a block of Konyakku, and although the noodles are easy to substitute, not so sure what to do with the jelly like block. Do I slice it and use with soups or what? Only bought the block once as the shop I searched had run out of noodles. Since then found the shirotake noodles, but still have the block with no ideas of how to cook it and what to cook it with. Please help, I don't want to throw it out...although I understand it keep for a good while

You can put it into soup or stir-fry it. In Japan, "sashimi" is also made from it. It's sliced very thinly and served with a dipping sauce and hot mustard.

If textures weird you out, you made find the block a bit too rubbery so slice it as thinly as you can.

Karen

Hello Karen,
You seem to be something of an expert on all things LC and japanese (!), and as I have discovered a really great japanese supermarket near my house, was wondering if you had any more exotic tips. Shirataki noodles are a staple for me now, as is daikon, and I just bought a pack of nori sheets (which I'm looking for some creative way to use by the way...) But there were so many great looking things. Any tips? I'm particularly wondering whether the dried packets of seaweed, and some other dried vegetable that looked like seaweed too, but was black, would be low carb (if only I could read the back of the packets!!) I've also bought a sauce called 'non oil Chuka Goma dressing' - looks like light soy sauce but with sesame seeds floating around in it... Any ideas if this sort of thing is LC (sorry for the million questions. Just excited about my new find!!)

Do you have a year? You're right though, Japanese food is pretty exciting, and a lot of it is perfect for low-carbing.

Nori, let's start with nori...Toast it a little over open flame first. It makes a good wrapper for tuna or egg salad. You can also make a grilled cheese sandwich with it. Put cheese betwen 2 sheets of nori and fry in butter. Or swipe it with butter and sprinkle it with toasted sesame seeds.

Does the dressing have the ingredients on the label? Be careful...most Japanese dressing contain sugar.

Seaweed is low carb. Wakame seaweed combined with cucumber, soy, sweetener and vinegar is a great salad.

Another tasty food is edamame which are frozen green soybeans in the pod. You boil them, pop them out of the pod and eat them.

Here's a few more links:

Nori/Sea Weed?

What about Sea Vegetables

Turning Japanese

And some good web pages:

http://www.bento.com/tokyofood.html

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e620.html

Karen

What fantastic advice - thank you Karen, I knew I could realy on you!! As for edamame, I love them - again one of my staples. Will definitely try some seaweed too - will make a good side salad for my sashimi nights... One other thing I saw in the shop were little packets of what looked like tiny fish. Would these be ok as an LC snack, or do you think they have additives?

Once again, check for sugar in the ingredients. Those little fish are what you would call an "acquired" taste.

Karen

Hi Karen,
I took your advice and bout a pack of the Wakame, which I LOVE... Its a fab noodle substitute, and great in salads. My only question is re:carb count. I found this on a site: Wakame - raw (carbs/ fiber/ ECC) per 100g:
9.14g 0.50g 8.64g
per tbsp (1/8 cup)
0.91g 0.05g 0.86g 0.30g
But is that for the dried seaweed or soaked (the weight and volume obviously change drastically!) And how on earth can you measure a tbsp of the stuff?
Thanks again for all your help and inspiration...

It's for the raw which would be the the same as soaked wakame.

Karen

that's annoying! The soaked is so much heavier you don't get much for 100g (9 carbs)...

Mix it with cucumber. It will lower the carb count.

You can use a vegetable peeler to peel long strips off the cucumber so it looks like the wakame. Very smart looking! And you can mix it with konnyaku noodles too.

Karen

(Hope I'm doing this right).
I used to make a Sesame Noodle with egg noodles, but I did try the Oriental noddles as well. Use about 1/2 lb. of the noodles 2 TBSP. soy sauce, 2 - 4 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp. hot pepper flakes, 1 tsp. sesame oil, & 1/4 cup veg. oil.
Actually pretty good. With these noodles I find doing it ahead a bit works better.

Question: Is everyone aware that Konyaku is made from starch? That is why I was surprised by this thread in a LC area. There are noodles made from tofu, but the actual konyaku is a tasteless, grey or clear block of a gelatinous-like starch used here in a variety of recipes. I don't believe it is low carb AT ALL!

Yes, and its a starch that has unique water absorption capabilities.

Either the noodles (shirataki) or cakes (konnyaku) are made by mixing water and konnyaku flour. The mixture is heated and lime is added which forms the mixture into a stable gel. Depending on the application, it can absorb up to 100 times its weight in water.

Though the nutritional content will be different depending on the manufacturer, its safe to say that 100 grams of the noodles would approximately contain 96 grams of water, 3 grams of carbohydrate, 1.5 grams of fiber, no fat and minimal protein. The calorie count is 6 kcals.

Karen