What I Made for Dinner :: Vegetarian Udon

OK, it's not the most beautifully plated bowl of udon, but it's full of vegetarian (but not vegan) goodness. I included blanched spinach, wakame (seaweed), sliced abura-age (fried tofu), and a poached egg (which I made properly today for the first time). A little sprinkling of shichimi-togarashi and tonight's dinner was complete (and remarkably filling)!

Notes:

• Timing is everything, which is a basic tenet of cooking, but especially so with noodles, in my opinion. It's best to undercook the noodles in case the toppings take longer to cook than you anticipate.
• I used all four burners on my stove to get the stuff ready: a big pot of water to cook the udon (and the soba for Ian) and to blanch the spinach, a kettle to boil water to rehydrate the wakame and to rinse the abura-age, a shallow pan to poach the eggs, and a medium pot to make the dashi.
• The order of cooking each component of the dish is important so that most (if not all) of the toppings are cooked before the noodles finish cooking: 1) put the water on to boil (in the kettle, big pot, and the shallow pan) while you make the dashi (combine water, soy sauce, mirin, and hondashi powder); 2) place a colander in a bowl and rehydrate the dry wakame for a couple of minutes with boiling water; 3) poach the eggs; 4) put the rehydrated wakame into the bowl and use the colander to rinse the abura-age with boiling water; 5) cook the noodles; 6) begin plating the dish: some dashi in a deep soup bowl (or proper udon bowl), the noodles, a poached egg, wakame, and abura-age; 7) blanch the spinach in the same pot you cooked the noodles in, and it's going to be hot, but squeeze out as much water as possible and cut the spinach into bite-size pieces (discarding the tip of the step holding the bunch together) before adding it to the bowl (alternatively, you can blanch the spinach beforehand and squeeze out the water after it's cooled; in the same vein, do not cook the spinach first in the same water as the noodles because the water will turn acrid). 
• If you like your food a bit spicy, use shichimi-togarashi (or even ichimi). You can also garnish with green onions or tenkasu.