Somen is a Japanese cold noodle, especially eaten in summer. It looks similar to udon noodles but it is thinner and softer. Then not like other cold noodles such as Hiyashi-chuka, it is dipped into a cold soy sauce based sauce when eating.
Somen is a typical dish eaten at home. It is hard to find at restaurants or diners and no one makes homemade somen noodle. Then, not as like cold soba or udon noodles, you do not eat tempura together with somen. Only several condiments are added to the sauce. These condiments are chopped scallions and grated ginger.
May be the most famous type of somen is ”Nagashi-somen“. The noodles are placed in a long flume fo bamboo and flow in a iced cold water. Then, the person directly picks up the noodle by his/her chopsticks.
By the way, there is a hot version of somen, in a warm soup which is cold ”nyumen”. However, not like cold somen, nyumen is a side dish rather than a main dish.