Cool as a cucumber

So it's hotter (and humider) than heck outside, so here's a nice cool recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen, Takeout-Style Sesame Noodles with Cucumber.  Cold noodles are heaven when it's a furnace outside. I added some cold poached chicken for some extra protein, and the recipe made enough for dinner for two and at least two lunches for me.  I made it pretty much as written, but made a few mods:

1. I did not have Chinese sesame paste so used regular tahini
2. I did not have Chinese rice vinegar so I used regular rice wine vinegar (unseasoned).  I want to find the Chinese rice vinegar as I've read it has a stronger taste - Super G here I come!
3. I added Thai basil to the mint and cilantro suggested for the chopped fresh herbs garnish.  I could have added even more.  
4. As I mentioned above, I added about 3 oz of cold poached chicken, sliced to each serving.  You could also use shredded leftover rotisserie chicken.  I bet some cold boiled/poached shrimp would be good too.

I used the same "rice sticks" Deb describes in her post (like what you might use for pad thai) which I've always struggled with cooking - they're either underdone or overdone and stuck together in a gluey ball.  I think I found a method that works well for me:  Place the rice sticks in a large bowl.  Bring enough water to boil to cover the rice sticks, and pour over.  Let the rice sticks soak 8-10 minutes, testing starting at 7 minutes or so for doneness.  Once they're done, drain the water and rinse w/ cold water to cool.  I even threw a couple of ice cubes in there to help cool down the noodles faster. Perfect and  I didn't even need to add the extra sesame oil to keep them from sticking.

I bet this would be good with soba noodles too!