Nobody likes me, everybody hates me...

After reading posts like this, I was so excited when I found shirataki noodles in my grocery store.  On the package, and from various descriptions I've heard, they are the "too good to be true" noodle.  20 calories per serving.  20!  That's it!  For the same amount of pasta, I'd be eating five or six times that.  I grabbed a pack a week or so ago and they've been sitting in my fridge ever since.

Yesterday, while I was wallowing in my cold, I decided it was time to try them out.  I cooked up some peas and broccoli with garlic and soy sauce and red pepper flakes, added the noodles, and ended up with what looked like an absolutely fabulous noodle bowl.  The fact that I had no ginger, chili sauce, or sesame oil didn't look like it was going to matter.  I was staring at a plate of food that was maybe 100 calories and would easily fill me up for dinner.

Triumphantly, I carried my bowl full of stir-fried goodness back to my nest of pillows and blankets on the couch.  I swirled a fork full of noodled tofu, held it up for inspection, and took a whiff.  And honestly, they didn't smell fantastic.  Not terrible, but not odorless, and definitely not on my list of perfume selections.  But whatever.  New food, new experience.  Not one to let a small setback get in the way of accomplishment, I took my first bite...

WORMS!  I'm eating worms!  Why am I eating worms?!  This is digusting.  They're slimy and they crunch slightly and EWWWWWW.

And thus the honeymoon fascination with the shirataki noodles came to a screeching halt.  The flavor was similar to the smell -- not fantastic, but very mild.  But the texture?  Horrifying.  I felt like I was eating a mouthful of night crawlers.  Chewing was even more alarming because the tofu has just enough structure that each bite has a bit of a crunch.

I finished my dinner.  It was tough.  If I'd known what I was getting into I would have saved it for when I wasn't feeling so gross already.  I might give them another shot just because they've got so much bang for my buck calorie-wise, but I'll explore new and undiscovered uses of spaghetti squash in parallel.  I love spaghetti squash, but I've only ever had it with red sauce.  So, next on the agenda is spaghetti squash noodle bowl.  I'll let you know how that goes.