Bentoing

Sorry, no recipe for the ramen yet. I'll try to push him on it.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm living with my boyfriend now and working a new job. Now that I share my dinners with another person, I very rarely have leftovers, especially if he's cooking because Japanese food never has leftovers. My new job also has a much longer commute than before, from 15 minutes by car to 1 hour by bike, train, and foot. But I wouldn't trade that for anything. I love using public transportation! I've lost some much needed weight, I can relax, catch up on Democracy Now! and Vegan Freak podcasts, and my company pays for it all! Anyway, I swear I'm going somewhere with this...So all these things combine lead to me not having any time in the morning to throw together a lunch nor leftovers to eat, so I have to be very diligent about making a bento everyday for myself and more recently I also make one for the boy (he makes dinner, I do bentos).

If you remember a while back, I posted about bentos and how I make Japanese housewives cry with my bento making skills. Well, I've gotten a bit better. They still aren't the crazy-on-crack bentos you've probably seen. I don't make any cute shapes out of any of my food, I don't use decorated plastic dividers to separate the food, and I don't cut my seaweed out to make faces on the rice. My bentos are focused on getting a full, nutrient packed bento.

I thought I would show you a bunch of them so that you can feel inspired to make your own.

This was one of the first ones I made. It included fresh blueberries, black beans taco filling (I think), corn with sesame seeds and sesame oil, white bean hummus, gyoza with soy sauce in the little animal bottle, and fresh carrots. On a side note, my coworkers freaked out when I was eating the raw carrots. Japanese people DO NOT eat carrots or very many other vegetables raw. They were shocked that you CAN eat them raw.

A bento from the same week. As you can see, I'm still eating the fresh blueberries and carrots with sesame, in between them is the black bean taco filling as well as taco seasoned seitan, more of the white bean hummus, and roasted eggplants. I had raw carrots and cucumbers in a separate container.

This bento included some leftover yakisoba, canned fruit, sliced aburage, and a big salad with the little blue animal dressing. That day I also brought a separate container of roasted red pepper hummus and carrots.

This bento included marinated and fried shiitake, fu and green peppers in an ankake sauce, broad beans with chopped umeboshi and a bit of soy sauce and mirin, marinated red cabbage, and koyadofu prepared to be like minced chicken over rice.

This bento had more of the red cabbage, a few cherry tomatoes, roasted eggplant, cucumbers with umeboshi, and a big thing of yakisoba.

This one was boiled cabbage, roasted eggplant, breaded and fried tofu, tomato and red onion salad, soba noodles in a peanut sauce (I reheated them at work), and snap peas.

Starting in the back is half a chickpea cutlet, piece of koyadofu, cucumber and umeboshi salad, boiled and steamed vegetables, boiled pumpkin, roasted potatoes, and rice with shiokombu (salted kombu seaweed). The bento is sitting on one of the cloths I use to wrap my bentos. They are called furoshiki, but this one is just an old handkerchief.

A very Japanese bento containing, strawberries, stir fried veggies, boiled pumpkin, steamed carrot, fried kabu (turnip), spinach with sesame, then rice with sesame and seaweed furikake.

Look at our bentos in love! haha!

Just some notes on how I prepared the bentos...I use reusable silicone cups to separate the foods, usually people just use disposable foil cups. I also use 2 kinds of sauce containers; the little animal ones that can only hold sauces with no seasonings (they don't come back out), and one that I unfortunately don't have picture, but it's bigger holds any kind of sauce or dressing and squirts them out like a ketchup bottle.

For the recipes, I use a few books. This one and this one are in Japanese, but great, simple, and quick recipes. For foreign recipes I use a bunch of different books. American style recipes often make enough for a whole meal and leftovers, so when I make one of these recipes it can last me the whole week by putting a few things in each day. For examples, the roasted potatoes, chickpea cutlets, and breaded tofu were from the Vegemonicon. The hummus recipes were from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan.

I also said that Japanese feminine bentos were a little small for my liking. And this is true in some ways. The bento you're seeing here is a pretty standard one and it leaves me satisfied and then starting to get hungry by the time I get home for dinner, so I usually want to eat dinner by about 6. I could definitely eat more and some days I take a small container with fruit or my rice or a salad. But this bento is also good for portion control, it doesn't let me overeat at lunch, but gives me just enough to keep me going through the day. I also recently realized that I'm supposed to be putting the rice in the black part on the bottom and the other foods on the top. So I imagine that way may leave you fuller, but I have no interest in eating that much rice. Plus my divider cups don't even fit in the top part with the lid on. But Japanese people love their rice.

So overall I'm happy with my bento. I may consider buying one a little bigger like the blue one above, but it just requires me to make so many foods. I spend at least a little time each night preparing 1 or 2 bento foods that will last me at least a few days, so the foods are constantly rotating. It's much more tiring than I would like it to be, but I don't have much choice. I have to wake up at 530 to get ready for work (and I am NOT waking up earlier to make a bento), I get home at 530 and need to be in bed around 10 to really function. So I just feel like my nights are really short and I'm just repeating the same routine every night: eat, cook, clean, watch a show, shower, sleep. I guess this is what it's like to be an adult. I can not fathom how people do all this and have kids or get to the gym. It seems shocking to me right now.

Alright, I hope you enjoyed a tour through my lunches. I'll have more to show in the future.

--Pamela

Ramen!

Hello! I know it's been ages. I'm still alive. Life has been both busy and static. Sarah mentioned I would have news of an animal. Unfortunately, the dog we were hoping to adopt didn't work out. But he went to a great home with little kids to spoil him and keep him busy. When the time is right for us, we'll invite a dog into our family.

I also moved in with my boyfriend and his family so that we can try to save some money for once. Although, we are using most of that to go to the states this summer. I also moved to a new school. I'm doing the same job, just somewhere else. I enjoy my new school MUCH more.

Alright, I guess that's it for updates...onto the food!

So you may remember us mentioning Cafe Proverb on this blog a time or two. It has been our favorite vegan restaurant for ages. Well, recently, they have made a lot of changes. First, a lot of the staff was changed. Then they added cow's cheese and cow's milk as options to replace the soy cheese (which was never vegan because of casein) and soy milk. This struck us as annoying and completely unneccesary. They clearly have a strong customer base, they are packed every time we go. Then more recently, Sarah went and they've added honey to some of the main dishes. So we are starting to give up hope for them. The owners own another cafe in Tokyo that is far from vegan, but the Kyoto one was sold to them on the condition that they keep the space a vegan one (it was previously Cafe Peace).

Our favorite dish there is the veggie soymilk ramen. As either a vegetarian or vegan for the majority of my time here, I've never had a chance to have real, restaurant style ramen. And let me tell you, it is very different from the packaged, instant stuff you may be thinking of.

Last week, my boyfriend had a craving for this ramen and since we aren't as interested in going there anymore, plus saving money for our trip to the states, he tried to recreate this dish. And let me tell you. It was spot on!!! We've already had it twice.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have a recipe for it, but I'll try to give you a basic idea soon. For now, the food porn shot to keep you coming back.

The pretty pre-diggin in picture.


So you can get a look of the noodles.

By the way, can anyone tell me if you can even get vegan ramen noodles in the states or elsewhere. The thing to look for is eggs. Both are sold here. In Japan they are sold in the cold case, fresh and usually very cheap.

--Pamela

Fun with Peanut Butter

Recently I've been really loving my peanut butter. People who don't like peanut butter are just wrong. Embrace the peanut butter, fools!

Here are two really easy and delicious recipes using peanut butter for all you non-fools.

Mick's Awesome Satay
(from my lovely Vietnamese/Aussie friend Mick)

You will need:
Peanut butter
Lemon juice
Soy sauce
Sugar
Garlic, chopped (or garlic powder is ok if you're feeling lazy)
Chilli (I use Sriracha hot sauce)

Mix equal amounts of the first four ingredients (I tend to go a little easier on the sugar) and add garlic and chilli to taste. That's it!
For one person, I'd use around a tablespoon of the first four each. Just taste it as you mix and adjust to your own preference.

This satay can also be thinned out with water or coconut milk. Mick told me that if you cook it, the flavours will mellow apart from the garlic which will intensify. It's good for dipping chopped vegetable sticks in, or summer rolls, or poured over cold noodles. I made a gado gado inspired plate with it too and it was goooood.


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"Put Your Banana in my Peanut Butter" Smoothie
I wanted to eat a banana pb sandwich but since vegan bread is pretty much impossible to find in Japan, I made this instead. This is a one person serving but of course you could make a big batch and share. Or not share. That'd be better I think.

You will need:
1 banana
1 teaspoon cocoa
1 teaspoon Inka/coffee replacement/instant coffee (optional)
1 BIG teaspoon of peanut butter (or why not go crazy and just chuck a whole tablespoon in that bad boy)
250 ml aprox. non-dairy milk (cause cow milk comes out of cow's nipples and you don't need to be drinking that)
Sugar/maple syrup/sweetener to taste

Blend all your ingredients together and add sweetener if you need it. If you are using instant coffee granules it might be a good idea to dissolve them in a little hot water or milk first. You can of course add crushed ice to this or more milk if you want it thinner. My best results were when I used vanilla soy milk and a very ripe banana.

Well, that's it. Easy, huh? I should warn you that the satay sauce is really addictive and since it's so quick to make, you might find yourself with a little peanut butter belly if you're not careful, haha.

"If you can't control your peanut butter, you can't expect to control your life"
- Bill Watterson (author of Calvin & Hobbes)

-- Sarah

Hisashiburi PunkYou! (Update and a simple recipe)

ごめん！It's been a really long time since we updated but we are not dead! Nope, just busy with lame-o English teaching jobs and the drama of life as a adult (blah, why did I ever want to grow up?....)

Anyhoo, both Pamela and I have some happy animal-related news to share. I'll only give you mine for now as I'm sure Pam will be bursting to tell everyone her awesome story personally!

.... I adopted a kitty! Her name is Maneki. Her name is kind of a joke since she is a "neko" (cat) and a "maneki neko"(Beckoning Cat) is a good luck sculpture in Japan. She was actually my friend's cat but he is moving to Osaka soon to live in a typical single "1 room" apartment in a very non-animal friendly building. Yeah yeah, I know, I don't understand why anyone would move to a no-pets building when they already have a pet but unfortunately, like many people I suspect, my friend didn't really think about his decision to adopt as seriously as he should have. Anyway, she lives with me now and I'll give her the best home I can.

Here's a picture for all you cat fans:

Aside from that, my life has been busy but not all that interesting to you! Spring is finally here and the ume (plum) blossom has come and gone which means it's less interesting, but far more famous cousin, sakura (cherry blossom) is on the way. Soon it'll be time for hanabi (flower viewing parties) and sakura-flavoured everything (including potato chips and kitkats). I went to see the ume blossom at Osaka castle park with my boyfriend a couple of weeks back. He bought me an awesome little ume bonsai tree which I enjoyed watching bloom on top of my TV for a couple of weeks. It also gave me an excuse to play with my Blythe doll and get her to do some modelling. Usually I don't like dolls but since she's dressed as a squirrel and my nickname is Squirrel, I thought she was pretty awesome. Also, she has red hair which is pretty sweet.

Here's my little bonsai and a coquettish Blythe shot for you:



And now that I've bored you all with that, here's a very easy but tasty Japanese recipe for you to try!

Sauteed Eggplant and Green Peppers with Miso
This simple traditional side dish goes well with a bowl of rice, pickles and a tofu main. Apparently eating eggplants in the hot sweaty Japanese summer helps to stimulate the appetite. But I don't usually have any problems with my appetite, haha.

You will need:
4-5 Japanese eggplants
3-4 green peppers (I used 5 small Japanese piman but the usual bigger kind is good too)
4 tblspoons sesame oil
2.5 tblspoons miso (you're choice but I used a mild red miso and it worked well)
1 tblspoon sugar
2 tblspoons mirin
2 teaspoons sake
2 teaspoons konbu dashi

Directions:
1) Cut the top stems off the eggplants and cut into round slices about 1cm/half an inch thick. Soak the slices in water for 5 minutes then drain.
2) Remove the seeds from the green peppers and cut into small bite-size chunks.
3) Heat the sesame oil in a pan and saute the eggplants over a fairly high heat. Add the green peppers and saute some more.
4) When the vegetables are have softened, add the miso paste and sugar. Stir and saute until the miso starts to burn a little and stick to the sides and bottom of the pan. Add the mirin, sake and dashi and cook on a medium heat, stirring often, until the liquid has almost all cooked off.

That's it for now but I still have to post about Japanese sweets. And I've been working on a BBQ wings recipe recently which hopefully I'll be able to share soon. I also have some chocolate pictures to show off and an awesome microwave brownie recipe too so...... I'll try my best not to slack off!

-- Sarah

The Wonders of Udon

Udon is a funny sort of pasta. I think it has to grow on you. Don't think of it like you would other pastas, just think of it in the general noodle category. When I first tried it, I thought it was too soft and thick and generally gross. I can now safely say after 4 and a half years I am officially converted and now choose udon over soda in the soba udon debate.*

Udon (and soba for that matter) are always vegan and since there is always a soba or udon shop anywhere you'll go, udon is indeed the wonder food for vegans in Japan. Now the broth is a slightly trickier issue. There are various ways that udon is served and you never really know unless you ask.

Even different areas of Japan have their own way of serving udon. However, if you find yourself at a chain shop, you are most likely to find bonito stock (カツオだし）used in the soup. But seriously, just ask, you'd be suprised. But my advice is to pick up a small bottle of soy sauce, ponzu (check it's vegan), or vinegar, or all of them and carry it in your bag or car. I find this most helpful for the chain ones or when I'm too scared to ask. Also, be wary of soy sauce dashi　because it is soy sauce mixed with fish stock.

You can easily make a very filling meal out of just a simple bowl of udon. Udon shops usually offer grated daikon, sesame seeds, kitsune (a fried piece of tofu, the same one used for making inari-zushi) and green onions for topping the noodles.

So this long explanation is to tell you about my recent roadtrip to the Udon capital of Japan: Kagawa Prefucture on the Island of Shikoku.

Kagawa is famous for their udon. There's even a movie about it. Many of the shops are run by families that have been doing it for years. Luckily, traditionally udon in this area is vegan (still, as always, double check). They serve the noodles simply with soy sauce and vinegar to 'allow us to more thoroughly appreciate the taste of the freshly made noodles'.

During our tasting tour of Kagawa we visited two udon shops (both of which happen to appear in that movie, we learned later). Be warned most of the udon shops in Kagawa, especially the great family owned ones are only open a few hours for lunch.

The first was 谷川米穀店 (Tanigawa Beikoku Shop). This was the first place we went. We heard of it through a guidebook and chose this one because they specifically don't use any broth, ever.　　We arrived about 1:30, so the main rush was over. They are only open from 11-2 each day, but after 1 they usually stop making the noodles. The noodles were made right there behind the counter in this small restaurant. They owners were very friendly, telling us that they've been making udon for about 40 years. They also promised that if we come back in the morning when the noodles are freshest, they will be even better. So we took them up on the offer arriving at exactly 11. The place was packed and there were at least 10 people waiting in line in front of us. Luckily, udon is the kind of food you just slurp down and move on, so the line moved fast. They were right about the noodles, the udon was definitely even better made fresh. It was great to see the whole operation at work. The father and grown son took turns rolling out the dough and adding the noodles to the boiling pot. The mother, grandmother, and staff filled the bowls, set them on the counter, and collected the money. I forgot to mention! Udon is dirt cheap. A big size bowl was 240 yen (less than $3). It was quite the experience and I highly recommend you get to this shop, if you are in Kagawa.

The second shop we went to, 小縣家 (Ogataya) is also from the guidebook. This one isn't a family style establishment, in fact it looks like they are in the middle of constructing a big addition. And the udon was all of uniform size, implying it wasn't hand made right in the shop. But it still tasted good and they gave us our own daikon radish to grate! Their udon is served with just a slightly thinned out soy sauce. You can also buy the udon their to take home for all your jealous friends and family. We also really enjoyed this place. Plus it's always fun to grate your own daikon! Also, this is also one of the few shops that operates for dinner, one of the reasons we chose to go there. They are open 9-6.

(We went back the next morning to get more udon to take home.)I highly recommend a trip to Kagawa, if only for the udon. We hope to make a trip back when it's warmer and visit some of the neighboring prefectures to do some swimming.

*If you've spent any length of time in Japan, you have most likely been asked 'do you like soba or udon better.' And most foreigners choose soba, probably because it's more similar to 'pasta' that we think of from Italian dishes.

--Pamela

Holiday Dinner Wrap Up

It's taken me a bit to get to this post. My camera cable was MIA.

So the dinner went through some last minute changes and ended up being at my tiny apartment. This meant that we had to dis invite some people and buy more glasses and plates. I also cut out a few of the planned dishes since there wouldn't be as many people to eat them.

See I wasn't kidding when I said it was tiny. I only have this tiny coffee table, so some of the dishes had to go on the floor. I also didn't have enough bowls for everything.

This is Bryanna's tenderloin. I also used the rosemary milk marinade she suggests. It took a lot of work. If you plan on making this, make the tenderloin ahead of time and freeze, then the day of will be minimal work.

Here are vegan dad's roasts. These were amazing!

The green been casserole, delicious as always.

My plate! Clockwise from the pumpkin dinner rolls, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with sage and onion gravy, stuffing, seitan roast, tenderloin with the cranberries above it and the carrots in the middle.

And of course dessert. We had three kinds of dessert. This is the pumpkin brownies, which were awesome! Mine came out more like a chocolate pumpkin cheese cake, I don't know if that's because I used a slightly smaller pan or that's just the way they are, but I'd definitely make them again. We also had fudge, which was good and pumpkin pie. The pie was our friend's first attempt at vegan baking. It was really tasty, he even made his own pumpkin filling. Sorry, I didn't get a good picture of it.

Also, if you have any doubt as to how awesome this meal was, check out an old post where I show you how small my kitchen is. I made all of this with 1 mini oven and a counter top the size of a few books. It took a lot of time management skills on my part. I'll update the previous post crossing out the things I ended up not making.

Happy Holidays everyone! I'm off to the udon capital of Japan, Kagawa in Shikoku for Christmas.

--Pamela

Our Holiday Dinner

I will once again be hosting a vegan holiday feast (along with my boyfriend since it's at his house). Last year, we had a Thanksgiving party. But this year the date is a little later, so I guess it's more like a Christmas party. Basically, the food is all the same to me and that's what's important. This year we are planning for about 10-15 people for dinner. Most of the guests are Japanese so they are just chipping in 1000 yen and then I'll be making most of the food with some contributions from Sarah and our friend Jason. Jason's not vegan, but is working out a vegan pumpkin pie for the party. I'm really appreciative he took on such a scary one for his first vegan cooking experience. He could have just said mashed potatoes (which he's also bringing) or something, but he didn't and that's cool. Maybe he'll see how easy it can be to make vegan food.

Last year, all the guests were amazed that all of the food was vegan and everyone ate themselves silly. I like doing this dinner because it shows how awesome vegan food can be, but it also shows a little bit about western culture. Most of our guests wouldn't have any other opportunity to eat Christmas dinner.

It's going to be next weekend, just before Sarah leaves to go back to Scotland for the holidays. I'll be stuck here...

So I've finished up the menu. Here it is:

Appetizers (last year people filled up on these too much, so I cut them down)

• pickles
• olives
• chips
• onion dip (La Dolce Vegan)

Bread

• Pumpkin dinner rolls (from a Vegan Freak Forum recipe-by the way, registration's open, come join!)
• Tea Rolls (from Bryanna's Vegan Feast Newsletter Holiday 2007 issue)

Sides

• Sweet potatoes with apples and walnuts
• Carrots on the side
• Green Bean Casserole
• Maple Glazed Vegetables
• Cranberries
• Stuffing (from a recipe from VFF)
• Gravy (VFF)
• Mashed potatoes

Main

• Seitan Roast (with the stuffing from above, probably)
• Seitan Tenderloin (from the Vegan Feast Newsletters Holiday 2007)

Desserts

• Pumpkin Brownies
• Fudge (from the Joy of Vegan Baking)
• Pumpkin Pie

I can't wait!

Pamela

My name is Pamela and I'm a cookbook whore

We still have a bunch of posts waiting to be finished (sorry for the delay). Hopefully, I'll be having some more time at work to finish them.


Anyway, to tie you all over, I thought I'd post picture of my cookbook collection. I've sort of turned into a cookbook whore since becoming vegan and I use any chance to get books sent over here. I used some birthday money awhile back to make a large increase in my collection. It no longer fits on the shelf, which is mostly ok, because I usually have at least one of them out all the time. I don't think hardly a day goes by without me at least flipping through them. I love just looking at them and reading and dreaming.

This is my tiny shelf. A few of them aren't vegan. The Japanese ones (except the one on the far right) are all omni. Recently, cookbooks geared for people with allergies have become popular (like the one Sarah gave me for my birthday), the ones I have are just regular omni ones. One is a macrobiotic book, two are diet cookbooks (which tend to have more veggie options), and one is a book of vegetable side dishes (most of which include meat). I think most of you can read the English ones.

These are the books on top. Most of these are part of the new editions to my collection (thus why they are on top). Glad I finally got Yellow Rose, especially after all the talk. Veganomicon is just too tall for my shelf.All of these zines were part of my new birthday money (I totally spent over what I got).


Show your collections! Let's see how about I add a few survey type questions to this...

1. What are your top three? (You know I couldn't choose just 1.)

My top three would have to be Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan, Vegan with a Vengeance, and Vive Le Vegan.

2. Which one gets the most use?

Probably Vegan with a Vengeance or Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan. I think I pick up E, D, and BV everyday, but I don't necessarily make things from it. I just fantasize about it. I always seem to be out of a key ingredient. Vegan with a Vengeance was the first vegan cookbook I bought and I've made a lot and tend to go back to some old favorites. I keep meaning to flip through it again to discover a recipe I've probably forgotten about.

3. Which one do you wish you used more?

I wish I used the zines more, but some of them are hard to use in Japan. Also, they don't have indices and I like to look up an ingredient I want to use or need to use up and then work from there when I'm cooking. Also, Asian Vegan Kitchen. Everything I've made from there has been amazing! Seriously, the tonkatsu is one of my favorite foods. But the book calls for lots of spices and things that are either a little difficult for me to get here or just intimidate me.

4. Is there one you regret buying?

Heart of the Home (middle picture). I bought it on a whim since I was buying other books, but it has honey in it and just a weird layout that annoys me, so I haven't opened it since I first got it. I should try and make myself.

5. What are the most important elements of a good cookbook (besides the recipes)?

I really like a good and well labeled index. I also like the table of contents to include the names of all the recipes. Good photos are also nice. I appreciate cookbooks that have lots of helpful tips and notes too.

6. What cookbook do you have your eyes on next?

Just the Burgers coming soon from Joni Newman. I have her Cozy Inside book and really like that.

Feel free to take on the challenge. Let us know if you do!

--Pamela