If you know me in real life - and my real life friends do profess to read this blog, although you would know it since no one but Leah leaves comments cough I'm just sayin' cough - you'll know that I have some fairly major life changes coming up in the next few weeks; changes that I haven't mentioned here on papillon mostly out of... fear, I suppose. Not of the things themselves, but fear that I would be jinxing them, or that something would fall through, and it would all be snatched away from me all over again. I've had reason to think so, if that's vaguely romantic and mysterious enough (I excel at being vaguely romantic and mysterious. No, really. I almost never drop noodles on my foot and then pick them off and eat them).

So now I'm going to be upfront, cause it looks like this shit's really happening.

I'm moving to Japan.

Exclamation mark exclamation mark exclamation mark.

This isn't actually news to most people, but I've been holding on to the announcement regardless - you know; what if JET found out about my past life as a criminal mastermind? What if the Japanese Embassy took one look at me and said, 'NOT IN OUR COUNTRY, THANKS' (or, you know... the equivalent in Japanese)? What if I got through all the forms and interview procedures and then they couldn't find a place willing to take me on? (And, more seriously, what if there was another crisis like in March?)

But here are the details. I'm living in Nagasaki Prefecture. I have a flat of my own. I'm working as an Assistant English teacher in a senior high school. 

And I leave in three weeks.

EXCLAMATION MARK!

Oh hey, and you're totally invited. See, papillon's coming with me, and although you might have to give me a bit of time to adjust and, you know, sort my whole life out, there are gonna be pictures and Japanese food and pretty much everything I'm up to. The noodles above? And the noodles I dropped on my foot? They are but a mere taster of the noodles that are to come.

And these are good noodles.

Soba Noodle Salad with Aubergine & Mango

adapted from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi with some of the changes in method suggested here; original recipe is here.

120ml (1/2c.) rice vinegar
2-3 Tbsp caster sugar
½ tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ fresh red chilli, finely chopped - I used dried chilli flakes
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
grated zest and juice of 1 lime

olive oil, to drizzle
2 aubergines
250g (8oz) soba noodles
1 large ripe mango, cut into 1cm dice or into 5mm thick strips
40g/a big handful of basil leaves, chopped 
½ red onion, very thinly sliced
handful of peanuts, to serve

First make the dressing. In a small saucepan gently warm the vinegar, sugar and salt for up to 1 minute, just until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and add the garlic, chilli and sesame oil. Allow to cool, then add the lime zest and juice.

Slice the aubergines vertically in thick slices – about 5 per aubergine.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with flaky salt and black pepper. Simmer Boston suggests you grill these for about 5 minutes per side, but I'm cooking with an Aga at the moment, so I cooked them for about half an hour at around 220C, until lightly charred and tender.  Remove from the grill/oven and cut into rough cubes with kitchen scissors.

Cook the noodles in plenty of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally. They should take 5–8 minutes to become tender but still retaining a bite. Drain well, then toss in a mixing bowl with the dressing, mango, aubergine, half of the basil and the onion. You can now leave this aside for 1–2 hours... or you can intend to do so, but get bored of waiting for your mother to get home from work and so eat your own bowl in a frenzy, flinging noodles around the kitchen willy-nilly and eating them off the work surface. When ready to serve add the rest of the herbs and peanuts and mix well, then pile on a plate or in a bowl.