I haven't had it there, but zaru-soba (cold buckwheat noodles) is one of my favorite summer meals, and is not easy to find. The chilled noodles are sprinkled with a chiffonade of scallions and nori. The cold broth that you dip the noodles in is dashi-based with rice vinegar, soy sauce and ginger. Very refreshing on a hot day.

Shirataki noodles are supposed to be the latest miracle diet food. A guy at Lotte Plaza told me they carry them. Any other sources would be most appreciated.

super h mart has it. it's over on the far wall with all the dairy.

you can also get shirataki at whole foods (duke st) in the dairy section.

I agree with you, Zora but not sure about the rice vinegar part.

I would like to buy pho noodles in the little nests that (apparently) most pho places use (they seem like they'd be easy to manage in and out of soaking, etc). I've tried a couple Asian markets, and have found what appear to be even thinner noodles in nests (Banh hoi) but no Banh Pho in nests. Am I tilting at windmills?

I don't know that I've ever seen them in the nest form. Why do you say that most pho places use them? If you seen bags of them at restaurants you may want to ask to just buy some from them.

You could always take the bigger package and break the dry noodles into more manageable pieces.