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1
Combine dashi, soy sauce, and mirin (3:1:1) in a clean vessel. Add a piece of kombu and steep in the refrigerator overnight. Remove kombu before service. The tsuyu should be noticeably more concentrated than a standard soba broth; it is served as a dipping broth and diluted at the table to personal preference. The tsuyu is done when it is deeply savoury, cold, and bright on the palate.
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2
Bring a large volume of water to a furious rolling boil. The volume must be sufficient that the addition of noodles does not arrest the boil. Drop the somen in without breaking the bundles; stir immediately to separate strands. Cook for 60–90 seconds only — 90 seconds is the absolute ceiling. The noodles are done when they are just tender through with a clean, springy resistance; there must be no raw flour at the centre and no softness at the exterior.
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3
This is where the dish lives or dies. Drain the somen immediately and transfer at once to a basin of cold running water, then to ice water. Work the noodles with both hands, rubbing gently to shed surface starch and chill every strand completely. The noodles must become cold, not merely cool — refrigerator-temperature water is insufficient; ice is required. The strands are ready when they are cold to the touch, firm, and entirely separate from one another, with no starchy coating remaining.
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4
Wind chilled somen into small individual nest portions (hitoneziri style). Arrange each nest on a platform of ice inside a glass vessel. The presentation maintains temperature, prevents clumping, and signals the seasonality of the dish. Somen deteriorates rapidly at room temperature; it must be served immediately and consumed within five to ten minutes of plating.
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5
Set the cold tsuyu in individual cups alongside small dishes of grated ginger, myōga, shiso, sudachi slices, and cucumber. The diner adds condiments to the tsuyu cup and dips noodles directly. For aged Miwa somen, serve grated ginger and a single slice of sudachi only, so that the crystalline starch character and clean wheat flavour of the premium noodle remains perceptible.