Punk You!

A kind of breakfast recipe

2010-02-02T12:17:00.002+09:00

I was hesitating to put this recipe here since it really has nothing to do with Japan. But whatever, I eat it in Japan, therefore it's relevant.

I wake up super crazy early for my job (5:30 people!). So I'm not really much in the mood for doing anything, the easier breakfast the better. I came up with this recipe off of several different ones that I'm sure some of you have come across.

It's super flexible, so have fun with it!

Ok, so basically it's oatmeal, but I don't cook it. Now, I think oatmeal is not a raw food (correct me if I'm wrong, so even though I don't cook it, it's not raw). Anyway, the basic idea is to soak oatmeal for at least an hour or two possibly over night. Then rinse it and drain it for about 10 minutes. Then add any fruits, nuts, or dried fruits you want. It's good with a nice crispy green apple. But apples and fruit in general is super expensive here and I'm also lazy to chop stuff. So I kind of ran with that basic idea...

I start soaking my oatmeal while making dinner. That way if I'm not to tired I can prepare this whole thing the night before, otherwise I just let it soak overnight. I soak it with a few dried fruits, especially ones that might benefit from plumping back up like blueberries and cranberries. Then I rinse and soak it, the same as above. Then I add it to my food processor with a couple bananas and sometimes a tablespoon or so of peanut butter and process. I like to leave mine a little chunky. Then I pour it into a container. Add nuts or other fruits or dried fruits and mix. I often add sunflower seeds and walnuts. This keeps in the fridge for about 3 days! So there you go, I have three days breakfasts made in less than 10 minutes. Then in the morning I just scoop out as much as I want and since it's been pretty cold, I stick it in the microwave for just a little bit (40 seconds). The bananas make it sweet enough that I don't need to add any sugars. And I get in a couple fruit servings as well as some good Omega 3s. Also, it keeps me full throughout most of my morning.

There are some many other ways you could make this, like adding a fruit jelly or flax seeds. I also had some left last Friday, so for dessert I added 1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder and about 2 Tablespoons of maple syrup and instantly had a 'healthy' dessert!

Alright, I'll try to post something more relevant to Japan next time.

--Pamela

AR blog

2009-12-04T10:41:00.000+09:00

For those of you who can read Japanese, there is a new animal rights themed blog that you should get out!

Here it is!

日本語でアニマルライツ（動物権利）のことのブログが始まった。是非見てください。

Uniqlo Heat Tech NOT vegan

2009-12-03T10:01:00.004+09:00

I have like 4 new posts in mind and hopefully, I'll get to at least a few of them in the next few weeks. They just mostly require my lazy butt uploading pics.

Anyway, I wanted to let vegans out there know about something very NOT vegan. I think it's pretty much impossible to avoid hearing about the new Heat Tech shirts by Uniqlo. I've heard that these shirts really are warmer than anything else.

A little background for people reading outside of Japan. Japan has pretty much the worst winters ever and make me wanna die. And I'm from Wisconsin, so that's saying something. It's not that it is ridiculously cold, in fact, it only gets below zero (in Celsius) for January and February. Recently it's been about 8 degrees Celsius getting up to 14 if it's sunny. That's a range of 45-55 Fahrenheit. But there is NO central heating, so basically inside is the same temperature as outside. In addition, there is no insulation or double-pained windows, so sometimes it feels like a wind is blowing right through them. The heaters most used are these oil powered death machines. They result in at least a few fires and deaths by carbon monoxide every year. But these are only in the main rooms, so no heat in the toilets, hallways, bathrooms, etc...The electric ones cost a fortune to run and so I usually just leave it on for a few hours to fall a sleep and just before getting out of bed. Try changing clothes when you can see your breath! I work at a public school and we can't turn our heat on until the hallways reach below 10 degrees (50 Fahrenheit) at 8 in the morning, which hasn't happened yet. So I typically wear 3 shirts to school. I'll increase to 4 in January and February, as those are the coldest months. Anyway, you get the idea, it's really freaking cold here in a very different way then in North America.

So the whole point of that was, you can see why these heat tech shirts are very popular, the thought of only needing 2 shirts and not having so many layers on that I can't bend my arms was very attractive.

Last weekend, as usual, Uniqlo was having a big sale (Uniqlo only has sales on Sat. and Sun.). I picked out a basic long sleeve heat tech shirt and got in line. The materials of the shirt are pretty typical, polyester, nylon, rayon...So my boyfriend and I are wondering what makes them so amazing. On the back of the bag the shirt comes in, they have a big thing about heat tech and how it was made and how it works. About halfway down, he spots the word 「ミルクプロティン」 "milk protein". We were both like WTF? I put the shirt back and we left. We told one of our vegan friends what we saw because he'd already told us he bought one. He was so angry, so he called their toll free line and asked about it. And they do indeed use milk protein in the production of their heat tech line, but of course assured us that people with allergies could still wear them (haha!). So weird!

Just wanted to put the word out there that Uniqlo's Heat Tech line is NOT vegan for others who may easily miss it on their packaging. Uniqloのヒートテックはビーガンではないです。ミルクプロティン入ってるので。

So I guess I'll still be dressing like that kid from a Christmas Story this winter.

"I can't put my arms down!"

--Pamela

Bentoing

2009-07-01T09:57:00.016+09:00

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!

2009-06-09T20:56:00.004+09:00

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

2009-05-19T00:08:00.004+09:00

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.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"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)

2009-03-22T21:42:00.009+09:00

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

2009-01-08T14:22:00.016+09:00

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

2008-12-22T14:37:00.011+09:00

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

2008-12-04T16:16:00.005+09:00

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

2008-11-27T10:21:00.005+09:00

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

Let's Start the Revolution, Ladies!

2008-11-20T12:24:00.006+09:00

We live in the 98th ranked country in terms of the gender gap. Out of 130 countries! Japan is the only country most people would refer to as 'developed' outside of the top 30. While I know women's rights and equality in Japan are bismal at best. I was still sort of shocked by the actual number. Japan's overall score and ranking from 2007 also dropped.

I think between Sarah and I we could surprise lots of our readers about the discrimination that we have either witnessed first hand or have had happen to us.

I was talking to my boyfriend (who is Japanese) about this list and he told me about a still common way for men to propose marriage to women. They say 'Will you please make miso soup for me everyday?' I mean WTF!?!? My boyfriend knows he'd get a straight punch to the face if he ever said that to me. However, I can't even tell you the number of times I've heard 'oh, Ume's so lucky you like to cook, you'll make a great wife'! And I've heard this by people my age and younger. When his sister said that to me, I laughed and she was like 'don't American people say things like that?' I responded, 'yeah, 30 years ago'.

Granted I know the US is still far behind where it should be and is nowhere near perfect, I'm not meaning to imply that. I just want to give you some examples.

About 2 years ago, while at a school function in the gym (of all Japanese people, except 2 of us) we were sitting on the floor. My coworker next to me (the only other non-Japanese person) was sitting with her legs straight out in front of her like several of the male coworkers around us. Our boss came up to her and told her she had to sit holding her knees or with her knees under her (seiza). He said nothing to the other teachers. Then when we go back to the staff room, he announced to the whole staff that the women teacher's have to be careful how they sit and that only those 2 positions are acceptable. My friend was mortified.

At several of the school's I've taught at, all the boys are listed alphabetically first. Then all the girls are listed.

Not to mention the now famous 'maid' cafes where girls dress like maids and refer to the all male clientele as 'master'. I've also recently heard about cafes where the girls where short skirts and the customers are encouraged to look up their skirts!

There are lots of other small examples I could give you like: my coworker who laughed at another coworker when she said her husband makes her lunch, or the girl I know who allowed her breasts to be grabbed by the 'winner' of a game she wasn't even playing, or how pretty much the only jobs women get to do are secretarial, or the blatant and laughed about sexual harassment that goes on in the work place, or dear god the porn industry,....it goes on and on...

I didn't really have anywhere I wanted to go with this, I just needed to rant. I may be back for more.

Sorry there are a lot of run-on sentences in this that I'm not going to fix.

--Pamela

レニュアル

2008-11-04T11:45:00.002+09:00

Yesterday, since it was Culture Day, me and Pam both had the day off work. So we decided to hang out, do some shopping and eating and we finally got a new picture for the blog!

Hope you like it!

-- Sarah

Mofo Wrap Up

2008-10-31T16:27:00.001+09:00

お疲れ～！

Today is the last day of the mofo. And now I have about 800 posts in my google reader to catch up on. I'm really glad we joined it. I've found lots of new and interesting blogs. And others have come to ours and hopefully are enjoying it. The month went rather fast and we still have several ideas of things we couldn't get to, so I hope you won't stop reading just because the mofo has ended. We will be blogging more regularly, so stay tuned. Thanks for all the comments and support.

--Pamela

Yeah, I second all of that! I've been feeling the pressure a little bit this month trying to post enough but I think we did a pretty good job and I hope you have enjoyed a little insight into our lives and eating habits in Japan. There are a bunch of posts that I didn't get around to writing up so be on the look out for some info about Japanese sweets, a frying pan apple crumble recipe, and a rhapsody about stew and dumplings :)

Thanks to my fellow blogger Pamela for motivating me to do this, thanks to all the other MOFOers out there for your inspiration, and thanks to everyone who read our posts and everyone who left comments for us. And most of all, thank YOU for being vegan (or at least interested enough in the lifestyle to read our crappy blog). You rock!

P.S. this is dedicated to all of you, haha

-- Sarah

Bentos!

2008-10-31T08:15:00.002+09:00

I think we would be commiting some sort of blogging offence if we didn't talk about bentos. There are about a billion resources out there for making fancy bentos.

That's not our picture. I found it here, where you can find many NOT vegan bento pictures. Yikes how long do people spend making these? The meaty ones make me sick, dressing up all the food to look like animals. There could probably be a whole thesis written about the cognitive dissonance involved in bento making.

Anyway, we're here to talk about some bentos we've made and show you some crazy bento gear. There is literally a section in stores devoted to just bento goods.

This is the section at Loft. I couldn't actually fit it all in the shot, but you get the idea.

Look at the assortment of bento boxes! I wish I had such a cool looking one. I have one more for practicality than cuteness. (All the 'cute' ones seem so small, so I always end up buying the dude themed ones. I wish Japanese women weren't always on a dieat and ate a normal sized lunch rather than kid portions.)

The accessories section! I don't even know how to use half this stuff.
Close-up on some accessories. These little things are used to stab food like fruit, so you don't get your hands sticky and they look cute sticking up out of the bento.

Now I'm ashamed to admit, I often make rather boring bentos. Apparently, there are 5 principles to making a good bento. They are: the bento includes the 5 colors, the 5 methods, the 5 flavors, the 5 senses, and gokan no mon (which is a Buddhist state of mindfulness while eating). Wow, this is getting really technical. I just try to use different colors and I guess different flavors.

Really, I think you can put anything in a bento. Don't let all the rules scare you. The bento Nazis won't come after you if you don't dress your tofu up like little bears or put happy faces on your rice. Let me show you some of my rather shameful bentos.

See, I didn't use any cute dividers or plastic pictures. It's just lunch.

Oh yeah, this one's fancy.

Major FAIL! This ones almost all beige. Damn it, I suck...

The main priniciple to bento making is to just make a bunch of different foods, each one featuring one vegetable or two. I'll try to put up a bento's worth of recipes in the next few weeks.

I have one tip for making your bentos. It is a very UN-Japanese tip.

Make about 4 or 5 seperate foods. For example, fried mushrooms, broccolli with a tofu mayonaise sauce, freeze dried tofu, tempuraed sweet potatoes, boiled carrots, sliced veggies, etc. Put them all into containers in the fridge and then portion them out into your bento each morning. Japanese housewives the country over are crying over the fact that I don't wake up at 5 each morning to make each dish fresh and with love.

So now that you have learned, just because we live in Japan does not mean we are bento masters...go out there and make your own bentos! It's really not as hard or scary as that Hello Kitty on steriods one is at the top.

--Pamela

Pam's right, you don't have to go crazy and wake up at stupid o'clock to make some elaborate character bento. Some of the nicest looking and tastiest bentos are quite simple. I think successful bento making just requires a little thought and forward planning. I've only recently become interested in bento making (much to the delight of the Japanese staff I work with who like to talk about what a great wife and mother I will be.... urgh) but am still very much in the same camp as Pamela when it comes to preparing things the night before.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the bentos and accessories I own:

Here's a bento I made for work last week. It's not all that exciting but it was tasty! This one contained spicy sauteed slices of eggplants, sundried tomato hummus, a veggie burger, spinach, cherry tomatoes and sliced green and red peppers. And the letters were cut from cucumber slices. I also had a seperate tupperware with slices of cornmeal pancake, raisins and mochi.

And since it is Halloween today and I love The Nightmare Before Christmas, I'll leave you with this picture of a bento (that I did not make and is sadly NOT VEGAN!). Seriously, I don't know how Japanese mothers have time for this!...

-- Sarah

Veganism is Logical

2008-10-30T16:00:00.001+09:00

There's been a post about veganism rolling around in my head. I didn't know if or how to even begin it. And I thought I would have to write some very long essay rambling on and on about vegansim with all kinds of sources and numbers, but really it just hit me the other day. It's totally not necessary. My (our) veganism is simple and logical.

We are abolitionists. Meaning I acknowledge that animals are sentient and entitled to their own livelihood. Therefore, it is immoral to use animals for human needs. Period. Full stop. End of story.

To these ends I do not believe in supporting anything that does not meet these ends, it just doesn't make any sense to me. And would be speciesist to do so.

See it's simple.

That's why I can't support something like California's Prop 2 that is giving legitimacy to the use of animals.

And what welfarists don't undestand when they say abolitionists are divisive, is that we are not even working on the same cause. You will not reach abolition by supporting things that are not abolitionist. We all need to be out there promoting veganism in whatever way we can.

Abolitionist veganism is simple and logical: it's not ok to use animals AT ALL.

Things that have helped me to come to this conclusion:

Abolitionist Approach

Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary's Letter

Food Room 101

2008-10-28T20:43:00.001+09:00

If you've ever read 1984 or watched the movie then you will be familiar with the idea of Room 101. Or if you were born in 1984 like me then you will probably have grown up with people going "Ooooh, Big Brother is watching you...." or "oh, better not be bad Sarah or you'll get sent to Room 101."

Anyway, skipping gently on....

Room 101 (for those of you who sat in the back in English class) is the room where THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD IS. So whatever your deepest, darkest fear is, it will be in Room 101 waiting for you. Creepy! This idea captured people's imaginations obviously and there was (and still is???) a long running TV show in the UK called Room 101 where celebrities could submit a few items that they want vanquished to Room 101, never to return. People tried to appeal to the host of the show to let their item go in. Some examples of nominated items include the Welsh, ventriloquists, jellyfish, the British countryside, the rules of golf, cheese, annoying noises, Britney Spears, campfire songs etc etc. When I was young I always thought about the thing that I would like sent to Room 101 and so I decided, inspired by the vegan MoFo, it would be a fun post to think about the food items that I'd like "disappeared" from the face of the planet.

My nomination for your appraisal:
The Most Evil Food Known to Man - Spaghetti Hoops

I seriously, fucking loath this disgusting monstrosity of a food item. Since I was a child, this is the one food that I will not tolerate near me. Even one whiff of the bright bordering-on-radioactive orange "tomato" sauce is enough to make me puke in my mouth. Probably because it smells like vomit already. I have a horrifying memory of being given a plate of this on toast at my grandparents house and having to choke it down while simultaneously trying my hardest to not regurgitate all over the kitchen table. Urgh. Also, these things are just freakish and unnatural. And what happens to the middle bits of the hoops?
Basically , they look like crap, they taste like crap, they are full of crap - ergo they should not be allowed to exist anymore.

I'm sure I have some things that I'd like vanquished but that's definetely the one food that I just can't tolerate at all. How about you? What food do you really hate? I'm interested so leave a comment and let me know!

-- Sarah

Easy Rainy Day Cornmeal Pancakes

2008-10-26T15:02:00.011+09:00

Today in Osaka is a depressing grey drizzly kind of a day and since it's a Sunday (i.e. day of nothing interesting ever happening) I elected to have a cooking and cleaning day. I cleaned my stove, washed all the dishes and began sorting through the dry ingredients tucked away in my meager storage space. That's when I found the unopened bag of cornmeal that has been sitting in my cupboard for a couple of months now. Finally , today I decreed it to be Official Cornmeal Bag Opening Day (quite catchy, no?)
Anyway, I originally bought it to make some pumpkin cornmeal waffles but had to give the waffle maker back to my friend before I got round to it. So instead I decided to make flat waffles - otherwise known as pancakes. I couldn't find a recipe that I had enough ingredients for so I cobbled this one together from a few of them. I was very pleased with the results and decided to share it with you. These pancakes were a little crunchy and reminded me of a sweet taquito thus I decided to fold them over and eat them like tacos.

Anyway, here you go:

"It's a Crappy Sunday Afternoon" Cornmeal Pancakes

You will need:

1 1/2 cups soy milk
1 1/2 tblspoons lemon juice (I think vinegar would work too)

2 tblspoons oil (I used canola), plus some for greasing the frying pan

1 1/3 cups cornmeal

2/3 cup flour (I used all-purpose white)

1/3 cup brown sugar (optional)
1/2 tspoon salt
1/2 tspoon baking soda
2 tblspoons maple syrup

1 tspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1) Stir the lemon juice into the soy milk in a measuring cup or jug. Set aside for a couple of minutes to let the milk curdle.

2) Mix the cornmeal, flour, sugar (if using), salt and baking soda together in a large bowl.

3) Stir the oil, vanilla extract and maple syrup into the milk mixture.

4) Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry, stirring gently and being careful not to over mix.

5) Drizzle a little oil into a non-stick frying pan and heat to medium heat.

6) When the pan is heated sufficiently, add about 1/4 cup batter and spread the it out evenly using a spatula.

7) Turn the pancake over when bubbles form on the surface and the batter begins to look "set."

N.B. I found these pancakes to be incredibly easy to flip and didn't break a single one so don't worry if you are nervous about that.

8) Continue to cook on either side until a nice golden brown colour is achieved.

9) Serve immediately with the topping of your choice!

I ate mine with brown sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on the inside. I dusted the tops with icing sugar and a little cocoa powder and served them with a cup of Yogi Tea Thai Sweet Delight.

Other toppings that I think would be good are soyatoo/vegan whipped cream, banana slices, grated dark chocolate, strawberries, raspberries and maple syrup. They are very adapatable so you could also try adding other things to the batter.

These really hit the spot!

-- Sarah

Another Survey

2008-10-25T11:14:00.002+09:00

I enjoy reading other people's surveys and learning more about my fellow vegan bloggers. I also think surveys are fun, so I'm gonna do another. This one is from the Get Sconed blog.
(I'm in pink today - Sarah)

1. What was the most recent tea you drank?

Yogi tea's Chai Redbush.
Yogi Tea's Thai Sweet Delight.

2. What vegan forums do you post/lurk on? If so, what is your username? Spill!

I spend most my of time at the Vegan Freaks Forum as japamela. I also have an account I occasionally use at the PPK also as japamela. Then I'm a member of a few others that I basically never check.
The only forum I actually contribute to is Vegan Freaks and my username is squirrelgaijin. I find other forums frustrating because people say things like "Of course I want everyone to be vegan and animal exploitation to stop but that's just never going to happen.... yada yada yada" and that kind of statement makes me want to stab...

3. You have to have tofu for dinner, and it has be an Italian dish. What comes to mind first?

Some kind of marinaded and baked tofu.
Lasagna with a tofu ricotta layer.

4. How many vegan blogs do you read on an average day?

I'm sort of ashamed to admit the number of vegan food blogs in my google reader. It must be well close to a hundred. I read as many as I can in my free time at work, maybe 20-30 blogs per day. I'm so behind since the Mofo began. I also have no internet at home, so I rarely check anything at night or weekends.
Only a daily basis, I only read a few although I wish I could read them all. I recently started using Google Reader so that number may increase soon!

5. Besides your own, what is the most recent one you’ve read?

The Sisters Vegan
I was checking out Fat Free Vegan this morning.

6. If you could hang out with a vegan blogger that you haven’t met, who would it be, and what would you do?

I'd say either Liz at Food Snobbery is my Hobbery or Lindy Loo at Yeah, That Vegan Shit. I love both their blogs and they seem like fun people to hang out with.
I second Lindy Loo at Yeah, That Vegan Shit. I have a little internet crush on her :)

7. If you had to base your dinners for a week around one of the holy trilogy – tofu, seitan or tempeh, which would it be?

I love me some seitan. Tofu is no longer exciting or interesting to me. It's so cheap and plentiful here.
I'd like to say the other two but feasibly, tofu would be my only option.

8. If you had to use one in a fight, which would it be?

Well, a seitan loaf could totally knock someone out...
Seitan for sure.

9. Name 3 meals you’d realistically make with that tough protein of choice!

The Italian Fauxsages from Fat Free Vegan, the stuffed "turkey" from Bryanna Clark Grogen (hopefully, I'll make that for Christmas this year), or the Faux Chicken from La Dolce Vegan (which I make fairly regularly). Ok, I'm gonna cheat and add one more I just found from Vegan Dad for a Stuffed Seitan loaf. I'd probably use my own stuffing, but that looks amazing!
Well tofu scramble is always an easy option so I'd make some kind of eye-wateringly spicy version and eat it with a side of avocado, some salad, refried beans and corn tortillas.
I think I'd make me some Kung Pao tofu too and eat that with some sesame noodles.
And third, I'd try out Pam's recipe for stuffed koyadofu and serve that with some miso shiru, a bowl of rice and some pickles.

10. What’s a recipe in vegan blogland that you’ve been eyeing?
I have quite a number starred in my google reader. Some for the day when I might go back to the states and thus have access to way more things and some that I want to make now. I really want to have bagels since I can't find many here and the ones I do are never vegan. The ones at No Whey, Jose! seem simple enough, so maybe those will be the ones I make. I know this is another seitan recipe, but I said it was my favorite! This is a Fried Seitan Salad from Vegan Yum Yum. I've been wanting to make a lattice cheesecake I saw over at Rural Vegan, since she posted it, but I've got around to it yet. I couldn't find the link, but I have it printed out at home and I really like it because it doesn't call for any vegan cream cheese (an ingredient not yet in Japan). I just realized after finishing this one, that I thought I was supposed to write 3 recipes.

I really want to try that lattice cheesecake too at some point, it looks amazing! And no vegan cream cheese required - genius! Other than that, I have my eye on so many recipes I don't even know where to begin. That Creamiest Mac'n'Cheez recipe that's been showing up everywhere is definetely on my wish lift. More specifically I'd love to try the amazing looking Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies from the Adventures of Superwife.

11. Do you own any clothing with vegan messages/brands on them?

Yeah, I have a few. One that says vegan in Japanese, one that says Powered by Tofu, a pink star with vegan written on it, and one that says Animal Liberation with an image of a bunch of different paws escaping from prison bars or bar codes.
I have the red Wings Are For Flying Not Frying shirt from Herbivore. And the same pink star vegan logo shirt that Pam has.

12. Have you made your pilgrimage to the 'vegan mecca' yet? (Portland, duh)

Not yet, but I'm hoping to make it there during a potential trip home in March.
Nope, one day maybe.

13. What age did you first go vegan? Did it stick?

27, and yes, I'll never go back.
17. It would have had I not moved to Japan when I was 21. Not that that's an excuse but I ate stuff with fish stock when I first came here (and probably many other things since I couldn't read Japanese). But now I'm vegan again and I'll never go back.

14. What is the worst vegan meal you’ve had? Who cooked it?

I don't think I've had a bad meal in the year or so that I've been vegan. The closest to it would have to be from the Italian restaurant I often visit with the boy. The staff is very kind and accommodating to us. So one time I wanted to order pizza, but of course all of their pizzas have meat and cheese. I ordered one and asked them to leave the cheese and meat off and if they could sub black olives. This was no problem and they did. I think they felt sorry for me for having to spend the money and not get 'as much', so they decided to add a bunch of other veggies on the pizza. Now normally that would be great, and I really appreciated the gesture. However, they added so many veggies that the pizza became soggy. Since then I stick to the pasta.
My worst vegan meal would have to be in days of student poverty when I would eat plain pasta with corn or just plain boring tomato pasta sauce. Blaaaah. Not disgusting just really boring. After my first year was over and I didn't have to share my kitchen with 16 other people, things got easier! haha

15. What made you decide to blog?
It just seemed like a good idea for all the things we can't put in our zine.
Indeed.

16. What are three of your favorite meals to make?

I tend to try an make a lot of new things, since I wanna make the most out of all of my cookbooks and it's something I enjoy doing. I make the Chickpea Cutlets from the Veganomicon on repeat. I also enjoy the roasted red pepper hummus from Alternative Vegan. The rosemary and white bean soup from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan. I know these aren't exactly meals, but whatever.
When I'm at home or in a real kitchen, I love to make lasagna. My mum's vegan lasagna is the best in the world but I try to replicate it when I can. I like to eat it with a nice big leafy green salad drizzled with a simple mustard and olive oil vinaigrette.
Me and my old flatmate, used to make the best taco salads in the world and every time I eat one for the rest of my life, I'll be reminded of her (I miss you Kate!). These things were gigantic creations with layers and layers of amazing goodness. Just when you thought that you'd got everything, you'd discover a new taste or texture. Mmmm, I have great memories of eating those salads in Japan.
Lastly, I'd say my other favourite meal to prepare would be a tapas style deal with plates of olives, salad, hummus, baba ghanoush, flat bread, dolmades, felafel, roasted peppers etc. I love that style of eating and it reminds me very much of my dad and the style of dinner he used to prepare sometimes when I lived at home.

17. What dish would you bring to a vegan Thanksgiving-themed potluck?
Stuffing or vegan green bean casserole. I'm too lazy to make one of the seitan roasts for a potluck, unless I'm the host.
Well, I just saw an amazing pumpkin cheesecake recipe so I think I'd like to take that. Maybe a big pot of pumpkin soup too.

18. Where is your favorite vegan meal at a restaurant?
Like a regular restaurant? If I go to a Japanese style bar that would be fresh, cold tofu or fried gobo (burdock root). I also like udon.
I like to eat at David Bann's in Edinburgh as long as I'm not paying! In terms of places in Japan, Cafe Proverbs in Kyoto is probably my new favourite place. Their food is SO good!

19. What do you think the best chain to dine as a vegan is?

In Japan? Hahahaha...ok, but seriously...I guess Big Boy because of the salad bar or one of the many udon shops (as long as you bring your own sauce). Saizeriya also has a very cheap pepperoncino that's good.
Saizeriya because it's so cheap (although you can only eat about 2 things on the menu), Big Boy because of the salad bar (and it's awesome name) and "Nantoka" Shokudo which is a chain of Japanese style self-service restaurants where everything is really cheap and good (you need to be able to ask about the stock they use though in case it contains fish).

20. My kitchen needs a………

bread maker!
OVEN!!!!!!!!!!!111111

21. This vegetable is not allowed in my kitchen…..!

I think I'll try every vegetable. I honestly can't think of one that I don't like enough to never use it.
Can't think of anything right now.

22. What's for dinner tonight?

I have no idea yet. But I really need to use up some spaghetti sauce in the fridge and some spinach. Maybe I'll make some meatballs and have pasta. Oooh, that's sounding good...ok, decided.
I'm going to make some hummus and a veggie burger and eat that in a pita with salad and avocado.

23.Add a question here! What's a blog you read that has not yet been mentioned?

Well, there are many, but let's see...I'll go with Seitan is my Motor!

--Pamela

-- Sarah

Fur Follow Up

2008-10-24T08:54:00.004+09:00

I wanted to add something about our earlier fur march post.

Japan has very few opportunities for us to meet fellow AR activists or vegans, so we thought the march would be a potentially good place to meet people, as well as give out our zine. It was also our first time to see what sort of movement is going on here. We ended up not giving out too many zines because we were both kind of crabby and the march ended up going longer than we thought, so at the end we had to run off to the concert. At the concert we gave out about 60 zines.

Anyway, yesterday I stumbled upon this post by Bob Torres of Vegan Freak. I think his article sums up exactly how we feel about this issue. I urge you to read the full article, it's fairly short and very well written.

Let me post a few of the most striking parts of it for me.

"I do not think that fur is worse because it is more
expensive, and in any case, I’m really not into comparing wrongs in this regard:
if you believe that animal exploitation is wrong, fur is just as bad as
leather—period. "

And this one:

"Veganism is the conscious rejection of all forms of animal cruelty and
exploitation in one’s life; it is the only real and all-encompassing solution.
If you want to make a difference, don’t bother with Zappo’s and fur; don’t
bother with cage-free eggs; don’t bother with organic milk. Go vegan, use your
talents to get others to consider veganism, and help build a genuine movement of
people who will directly challenge the root causes of animal exploitation.
Anything else is ignoring the real problem."

I think I'll leave it there for now. Please read the article, it will give you a good understanding of where we are coming from with our veganism.

--Pamela

The Wonderful World of Smoothies

2008-10-23T10:38:00.001+09:00

I haven't done this recently because it's starting to get cold. But for a long time I was making smoothies for breakfast every morning. It wasn't long ago that I thought smoothies were a complicated art that I was not ready for. How wrong I was...I've seen recipes in many cookbooks calling for sugar, vanilla extract, ice cubes, etc. And while these might make a better smoothie, they are by no means necessary.

My basic smoothie goes like this:

-some soymilk

-2 kinds of fruit (I mix frozen, fresh, and canned)

-about a Tbsp of flaxseeds (not always, it makes the smoothies very thick)

-some kind of green (depending on if I have any on hand)

That's all you need! There is no need for anything fancy. I mix canned and fresh fruit because fresh fruit is very expensive here. The combinations are endless and I've only had a few that I had to 'choke' down. So word of advice, cantelope doesn't really work in a smoothie.

I'll show you a few of the ones I've made.

--Pamela

Over-Stuffed Tofu

2008-10-22T11:00:00.005+09:00

As promised I think I have the recipe ready for the stuffed Koyadofu （高野豆腐）.

Koyadofu, also known as freeze dried tofu, is great for stuffing because it's flexible and kind of sponge like, so it rarely tears. It also absorbs flavors well.

I was inspired to make this recipe while in the grocery store a few weeks ago. It was the start of the Mofo so I was checking out some cooking magazines near the front for inspiration. The magazine had a recipe for stuffed koyadofu. Do you know what it was stuffed with? That's right, minced pork. I mean what goes better with tofu than minced pig meat. Sick! I was so angered by this image that I slammed the magazine close without actually looking at how it was prepared and marched over to the section to get freeze dried tofu. And went home and got straight to work. That's how this recipe was born.

I love boiled koyadofu. My boyfriend's mom often boils up a bunch of the small ones and I can eat most of them in one sitting. I used her method in this recipe for preparing the koyadofu.

Over-Stuffed Tofu

4 blocks of the large size koyadofu

For the tofu:
3 cups water
4 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp mirin
1 Tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt

Bring to a boil. Add the koyadofu and boil for about 10 minutes. Then let them sit in the hot liquid for another 5 minutes, covered.

For the stuffing:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 small nub of ginger
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 large carrot or 2 small
2 cups spinach, cut into bite size pieces
handful toasted walnuts
2 Tbsp green onions, sliced

Before preparing the stuffing, drain the koyadofu and leave it in a strainer. It will be far too hot to handle, so I put a bag of frozen veggies in the strainer and set it aside while I make the stuffing.

Fry the ginger and garlic in the oil. After a minute or two add the carrots, spinach, and soy sauce. Fry it all together until the spinach is wilted, about 5-8 minutes. Turn off the heat. Add the toasted walnuts and green onions and mix it all together.

Now that the tofu is cooled enough to handle, use a serated knife to cut a pocket into the tofu on the long side. Like this:

Then shove as much stuffing into it as you can with a spoon.　　I think it looks good a little over-stuffed.

I then put all four filled pieces onto a glass baking dish and put it in the oven for 10 minutes at 180 (celsius-350 Fahrenheit) just to bring everything back to the same temperature. Enjoy!

If you have extra filling, it works nicely in a tofu scramble for breakfast the next day.

The filling is also very flexible depending on your tastes or what you have on hand. I think almond slivers would work to replace the walnuts. You could also use different vegetables you have on hand or some spices. I kept spices out, to more mimic the Japanese style of cooking.

If you don't live in Japan, I'm sure you can get koyadofu in an Asian market.

Let me know what you think!

--Pamela

I also made this recipe for the Iron Chef Challenge.

Anti-Fur Rally

2008-10-21T14:14:00.007+09:00

On Sunday, Pamela and I woke up early (much to my delight after a night of drinking and karaoke with my cousin who is visiting at the moment...) and headed off to an anti-fur demonstration in Osaka. In case you are not aware, fur is big business in Japan. In fact, right now, it's everywhere. I can barely walk down the street without being confronted by a disgusting shop window display or some girl with a gross fur scarf on. I've never seen so much fur in my life and so little public outcry about it.
Anyway, this was the first protest that I'd been to in Japan and it was pretty good. Of course, since it was in Japan, we had to be well organised and supervised and it was hardly the rousing and energetic demo that I'm used to in the UK (albeit with a refreshing lack of police brutality).
Unfortunately, me and Pamela were not exactly in the best of moods. And when we arrived both of us instantly scanned and noted the number of leather items adorning the protesters. How ironic and yet how unsurprising for anyone who has lived in or experienced Japan for long enough. Actually, that's not fair - it's not just Japanese people that can't draw that parallel; it's about 80% of the people who are against the use of fur. Anyway, I tried to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and hope that perhaps it was pleather or another cheap imitation (because even I own a pair of boots that look quite like leather but are actually just a cheap crappy synthetic). Had we quizzed people on how long they'd been veg*n.... well, I think we may have been thoroughly dissapointed.

Here are some pictures from the march:

I chose to carry a placard with a message on one side and a picture of a skinned fox on the other. I caught a lot of people looking and turning away in disgust and Pamela spotted one girl who we think was crying because of what she saw. Of course, since fur is so popular here and part of the route took us down the busiest shopping area in the south of Osaka, there were a number of people wearing fur items. Some of them walked away, some of them covered the offending article and some of them brazenly stared, walked on and seemed unaffected. As with any protest, there were unfortunately a few asshats who made comments and I wished at that moment that I knew how to say "you have no heart" in Japanese. Honestly, I have no idea how someone can be confronted with images such as those on the placards and be unphased. But then again, how many people know the pain and suffering involved in the meat and dairy industries and yet continue to support them? *sigh*

After the protest, we headed off to Umeda (the northern center of Osaka city) to see our boyfriends' band. The show was sponsored by Thrasher magazine so there was also a small skate ramp in the hall they were using. In between band sets, me and Pam caught up with a member of Child School TV: the second band to play that day. Gome (that's his name) is pretty frickin awesome and not only did he give us each a t-shirt, since it had been our birthdays recently, but he also talked to us about how he really wants to become a vegetarian. We talked for a while about the best way for him proceed and agreed that first he should elimate all beef, pork and poultry from his diet. Then after that, he can start working on the fish thing (I'd say that fish is by far the hardest thing for a Japanese person to give up since it's in so many dishes and in so many forms). Well, later on, he went to Subway and came back to tell us that he got the egg and vegetable sandwich. I, so very unsuble that I am, let out a dissapointed sigh at this because I hoped he would have got the avocado veggie option. But for him, skipping the meat, was a big deal so I have to give him props for that. I guess we'll see how he does as time goes on. I think he really agrees with us but it's just hard to change your mindset after almost 28 years of thinking that eating and using animals is not only acceptable but not even a moral issue.

GxOxMxE - 頑張れ！

-- Sarah

A Day in the Life

2008-10-20T08:35:00.000+09:00

I subscribed to Fit Day a long time ago and had always wanted to use it to just see how I'm doing in terms of getting all the rights nutrients.

So I figured I might as well take the oppurtunity of the MoFo to get my butt in gear. It took me forever to enter what I'd eaten so I doubt I'll be using it regularly, but it is helpful. By the way, I cook a lot of recpies myself, does anyone know if there is a way to add a whole recipe as one item? For example, I had to find every ingredient for the chili I made and then estimate how much of the recipe I ate. I figured all the premade and canned ones would be way off since they included meat or loads of salt or totally different ingredients. So it would be useful if I could have a recipe analyzed and then just click that recipe to add to my daily food log and adjust for how much of it I'd eaten.

Anyway, here's what I ate for the day.

Breakfast: I usually have a smoothie, but I recently realized you can eat oats raw (I have no idea why I didn't know that), so I decided to have an oat cereal. I used:

1/2 c oats

1/4 c raisins
1 Tbsp dried shredded coconut (unsweetened, but FitDay only had sweetened)

1 Tbsp frozen raspberries

1/2 c vanilla rice dream
1 Tbsp sliced almonds

It was actually too sweet, but really tasty.

Lunch: I always bring my lunch to work. It's usually leftovers from dinner. Today was no exception. I had the Red, Gold, Black, and Green Chili from the FatFree Vegan. I didn't use barley or the hot sauce and I had no garlic, so I used garlic powder. I ate the chili over 1/2 c of brown rice.

Dinner: I gave up. It's too hard to enter each ingredient for a whole recipe. I had brown rice, General Tao's tofu (subbing La Dolce Vegan's Faux Chicken for the tofu), and the Nasu Don from the Vegan Ronin. Here's a picture instead.

So what were my results? Well, I found out I have no idea how to import the graph from my page, but let me tell you a few things it said. (Remember this is only for breakfast and lunch.)

I'd had 916 calories.

I had over 100% of my daily need of carbs, fiber, Vitamin C, copper, sodium, and manganese.

I ate 61% of the protein (which I'm sure was pushed over 100% with my dinner).

I had 24% of the calcium.

And about 50% or more of the other needs, except Vitamin B12, D and E. (I get my D through some form of sunshine everyday and my B12 through nutritional yeast and a supplement, so I'm not too worried).

What do I think about it?

I ate way more sodium than I thought I do. I don't even particularly care for salt and don't add it to things that often. I also ate less things containing calcium than I thought. I know calcium is in dark, leafy greens and I don't eat enough of those because of their price and lack of variety in Japan. I can pretty much only get spinach (that I like and know how to use) or powdered kale.

I'm also not sure how accurate this thing is. Like it didn't ask me about cooking methods. But there you have it. Do any of you use FitDay? And if so, do you know how a recipe can be put in?

Birthday Parties and the Myth of the Militant Vegan

2008-10-18T08:30:00.002+09:00

I hate parties. I hate big groups of people. I hate the pressure of organising things. So why then, you might ask, did I decide to invite all my friends to Osaka for the weekend to celebrate my 24th birthday? I don't know but it seemed like the right thing to do. Plus, it was Pam's birthday around that time too so it was an excuse to make her come to Osaka and hang out with me.

Since this party was for me and Pam, I wanted the eating part of the occasion to be entirely vegan if at all possible. There is a great restaurant in Osaka called Green Earth but it usually closes at 5pm every day. However, since I remembered that they host vegetarian parties, I figured why not ask if they will stay open later for us? And when I say "I" I mean "my boyfriend" who called and organised it all. hehe.

Anyway, the one thing you must remember when you invite a bunch of non-vegan friends to eat vegan food is that people will make various comments ranging from positive to, what you may deem to be, ridiculous, arrogant and/or enraging. I love my friends a lot and they are all great people but when a bunch of vegans are enjoying their food, it's really a lesson in survival to keep your mouth shut. There is a time and place for criticism of veganism and it is not over delicious food and at a birthday party.

Also, my other observation is that people still believe in this myth of the militant vegan. Of course there are plenty of vegans who won't hide their disgust while their friends tuck in to dead flesh but I think I've learned that people are incredibly sensitive when they are eating/cooking and antagonising someone is not the best way to make veganism seem appealing. Honestly, the vegans that I know are all really nice people. Yeah, they feel strongly about their lifestyles but they don't (usually!) go around starting arguments over dinner. In my whole entire life as a vegetarian and later as a vegan, I have probably started 1 or 2 discussion which have turned into arguments. However, I can't count on all my fingers and toes how many times people have attacked me or made disparaging comments instantly as soon as I mention that I'm vegan (and please note: I didn't bring up without any reason, it usually just comes up naturally since they wonder why I'm not eating the pizza everyone is sharing etc).
In my experience people tend to choose one of three paths when faced with a vegan:

1) become instantly defensive

2) make stupid jokes about how vegans just eat tofu and carrots and/or are puny, pasty weaklings

3) are interested and ask insightful questions (or sometimes stupid questions but that's OK because at least they are being friendly)

Well frankly, I am fucking sick of the first two. If you start an argument with me, you better be willing to take it as good as you can dish it out. Because I pretty much guarantee you, that I have a response to every one of your dumbass comments and I know a damn sight more about animal behaviour and physiology, nutrition, the environment, and farming practices than you do! So suck it!

One last rant, if an omnivore criticises my food then it's OK - it's just their opinion. But if I criticise your food then it must be because I'm a VEGAN (cue scary horror music). Never mind that I've always hated the sight, smell and taste of bacon and sausages, even when i was a tiny kid. Never mind that loads of people think that cow's milk is fucking gross. Never mind that loads of people think eating an entire plate of meat is nasty and also a heart attack waiting to happen.

But of course, I'm forgetting: it's NORMAL to eat meat. And becoming vegan instantly marks you as being insane.
We are the vegan freaks after all.

-- Sarah

Sing it sister.

--Pamela

Birthday Bash Part 2ish

2008-10-17T08:30:00.001+09:00

So it was an extended birthday weekend...

My birthday was on Monday, the 13th, which also coincided with a National Japanese Holiday (パメラの日）. The big party was over on Saturday and our boy's had a show. I asked Sarah to meet me before the show, just so I didn't feel super lame about being alone while the boys had sound check. So we hit Moby Dick, a buffet chain restaurant. This is NOT a vegan restaurant, but they do have many options for vegans. They have also added allergy index cards in front of most of the items, so you can usually figure out what is vegan.

Here's my plate. If you look in the background you can see my present from Sarah! It's an awesome vegan, Japanese cookbook. Hopefully, I'll be posting something from out of it shortly, I just have no food in my apartment and can't decide what to make.

My boyfriend plays the trombone. He was nice enough to mouth the words Happy Birthday to me from the stage. I felt special.

After the show, he skipped the after party and we went to Big Boy, which is basically just a big steak house/family style restaurant. The only perk to it is that they have a good vegetarian salad bar.

All in all I had a very nice birthday. I got to see some of my favorite people and eat at 2 buffets, what can be better?

--Pamela

My first plate of yummy stuff from the buffet:

Rice with konbu and wakame, umeboshi and some other pickles:

My dessert plate (nashi pear chunks, azuki bean jellies, orange slices):

--Sarah

Birthday Bash

2008-10-16T09:47:00.007+09:00

Like I said yesterday, we had our birthdays this past weekend. There are not that many places here that we can eat it, especially for dinner. Our first idea was to go with the usual Mexican place...until we remembered that would involve us having to watch our friends consume animals, that they still view as food. This seemed like a very unappealing option for 2 vegans birthdays. There's a GREAT vegetarian restaurant in Osaka called Green Earth (unfortunately, they don't have a homepage グーリンアース) that we often go to. For some odd reason we haven't reviewed it yet, I guess cuz it's a place we've been to so much that we forget about that. We'll try to review it in the near future.

Anyway, they usually close at 5...but they host private parties. So fearing ridiculously high costs for a private party, we called and learned it was actually completely reasonable for a party in Japan and even on the cheap side to have the whole restaurant to ourselves. (yeah, run on sentences! Can I be the queen of run on sentences?) We also informed them that they need not make any of their vegetarian options and just go vegan all the way!

How have I written 2 paragraphs without any pictures!?!?

Here's the spread with everyone's grubby little hands!

This is my plate. Clockwise from the bread: bread with a hummus-type spread, fried 'egg' rolls, a brocolli salad with imitation feta, chickpea salad, bean sprout salad, pasta and lentil salad, bean (maybe lentils) burgers with a tomato sauce, stir fry with mock beef, and karaage in the center. I was so overwhelmed by the massive amount of food and the friends, that I couldn't even finish it all. It's also too bad that I tend to talk too much and thus eat really slowly.

Anyway, I think the food was awesome and at a good price and hey, 16 of our friends could see that vegan food is delicious and varied (not that we let them forget that). Now to convert them all...

--Pamela

It's My Birthday and I'll Overeat if I Want To

2008-10-15T12:26:00.013+09:00

I think we might be behind a post or two...Maybe there will be a weekend post to make up for it. My google reader is totally overloaded with all the Mofoing going on, I think I'll have to wait to catch up on all that. Glad we've been finding some new readers to our blog. Hope you are enjoying it. And I've also begun enjoying some great, new blogs.

Well, first off, Sarah and I had birthdays this weekend. Sarah's is the 11th and mine's the 13th. We had a big party for Sarah's that I'll blog about next, but first I want to brag about the cake I made for her.

Check this baby out!

I used the Raspberry Blackout Cake recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance and the Chocolate frosting from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I doubled the cake recipe since we were serving 16 people. Now, I know that making a layer cake doesn't seem like such a challenge, but let me explain. Japanese ovens are about the size of an American microwave. So you can only fit one pan in the oven at a time (like I even own more than that). On top of that, the heat source is some strange convection type thing, but not quite. I don't really understand how it works, but the heat source is concentrated at the top. Anyway, I had to take the cake out of the springform pan, flip it over, put it back in the pan, and continue to bake it for another 15 minutes. Then do the same with the other layer. It took me like 3 hours.

But man, was it worth it, this cake was delicious if not sugar coma inducing.

Here's some more food porn for you all.

Sarah's boy bringing out the cake. The first time, a ceiling fan in the hallway blew out all the candles and we had to sing twice.

Sarah wishing I would finally agree to marry her so we can have this cake for every anniversary to come.

Oh yeah....

Ok, I'll stop...but seriously it was good! And I was so proud I didn't totally fuck it up.

So Happy Birthday to Us! Happy Birthday to Us! Happy Birthday to Us!

--Pamela

Haha! I totally lied one more...

Recent Eats

2008-10-14T21:50:00.006+09:00

Despite being busier at work than usual, I've been very motivated to cook recently. Unfortunately, due to my general rubbishness, I didn't take pictures of many delicious things so here are my humble offerings to you, lovely blog reader :)

Spicy birthday sausage (haha, double entendres are so much fun) from my lovely friend Jhenn over at Vegan Ronin:

Creamy tofu, vegetable and brown rice pie which I bought at the Kyoto Vegetarian Festival:

The pie and some soup that I concocted out of pumpkin, carrot, sweet potatoe, onion, garlic, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and garam masala:

The same soup again the next day but I thinned it out with some soya milk, added more chilli and fresh black pepper, and sprinkled paprika and cayenne on the top:

Genmai (brown Japanese short-grain rice) with some kind of spicy gluten, pepper, spinach thing that I randomly created. I was craving General Tao's tofu but I wanted to use up the ingredients I had on hand:

Quadruple Spice Tofu Scramble :)

The quadruple part refers to the fact that I used chipotle, jalapeno, taco seasoning and hot sauce:

Japanese-style curry with eggplant, carrot, potato, pumpkin and onion chunks:

-- Sarah

Chickpea Cutlets

2008-10-10T03:20:00.001+09:00

I have been making the Chickpea Cutlets ever since I got my sweaty paws on the Veganomicon. I usually make a double batch of them and don't fry or bake them, but put them straight into the freezer. Then I have loads of burgers waiting for days when I need a little something to add to my meal. At first, I served them with the BBQ sauce from the book. Then I tried them with just mustard. These were both good and I usually went with mustard since I always have it on hand. But recently, I had an avocado and red onion to use up, so I made guacomole. But I had no chips...So I put the guacomole on the cutlet and stuffed it in a pita. The combination was amazing!!!

Seriously, if you are the one vegan out there who has not made these, make them! I served them with some roasted eggplant and zucchini. I've also subbed out half the chickpeas for cannelli beans and that was also good. I usually use a tad more of each of the spices (including the garlic) than is called for.

Man, I want these again now!

--Pamela

If we don't do it, who fuckin' will? (off the album Dead FM)

2008-10-09T08:26:00.005+09:00

Pretend this post is from Wednesday. Oh, and since most of you are way behind us in time, it is technically still Wednesday in America, that totally counts. I'm workind at my least favorite place this week until next Tuesday, which means, I have almost no internet access and Sarah is working a lot this week too. But don't worry, we'll still post and it's both of our birthdays this weekend, which should lead to some good vegan food posts!

Anyway, on Tuesday one of my favorite bands came to Japan. Strike Anywhere! I've seen them all three of the times they've played in Japan. Seriously, their shows are awesome! I love this band.

Last time, I saw them I wasn't vegan yet, but was very interested in it. Half of the band's flight was delayed and while they waited for them to arrive, Thomas, the vocalist was just hanging out in the venue along with the opening band and some other people. So anyway, I talked to him about veganism and he told me it was hard for them to eat in Japan and that they live off energy bars.

So I thought it would be cool to bring them food this time! I wasn't sure who was vegan, besides Thomas. But it turns out the bassist, drummer, and manager also are (I believe). I made them the roasted red pepper and almond hummus from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan, a salad style quinoa from Vive le Vegan, and apple pecan muffins from the Joy of Vegan Baking. Then I through in some cut veggies and Japanese packaged foods that you can put on rice, since you can at least get rice at every restaurant. So I added some kinds of seaweed to put on the rice for more flavor and nutrition. Anyway, after the show, it was pretty easy to talk to them (one of the advantages of being the only native speaker in the entire crowd).

He was very appreciative of the food and kept asking me if it was really ok. And that it would really help them out. He said they basically eat one meal a day in Japan and then get convience store rice balls for the rest of the day. The Japanese staff with them try to explain things for them to restaurant staff, but having gauranteed vegan food was hopefully a relief for them. I was glad I could help a fellow vegan out.

Really he and his band are an inspiration. If you don't know them, you should really check them out. Their songs are all political in nature and on stage he talked about lots of different issues. It was refreshing to hear (I don't get much of that in Japan). He even asked me what I think about the political situation and if I plan on going back or want to go back to the states. Anyway, he's a really cool, really nice guy. I hope all my food was good and nothing went bad or anything.

Like a total tool, in all my cooking excitement I forgot to take a picture of any of the food. But you can imagine how awesome it was.

However, we did get a picture with Thomas.

I'm the uh, girl. Then Thomas, Ume (my boy) in the back, and Yuji (Sarah's boy) in yellow.

--Pamela

A Survey

2008-10-07T16:13:00.001+09:00

Got this survey from Food Snobbery is my Hobbery. And I like surveys, so here it goes. Again, I (Pamela) am in blue.
(And I'm in pink - S)

1. Name a song that involves food in some way.

Cherry Boy by Cutie Pi (It has nothing to do with cherries, the food, but it's from the boy's band and the first song that came to mind)

You Put Your Chocolate in my Peanut Butter - NOFX

2. What criteria do you use when choosing a new cookbook to buy?
I usually just check out a few reviews on the Vegan Freaks Forums.
I don't know really. Recommendations mostly I guess. Any book that uses lots of chilli, or hot sauce or has a lot of spices in it, will generally end up on my to buy list.

3. What did you eat today?

Blueberry muffins for breakfast and spinach, pea, and potato soup for lunch.

Coffee and a banana for breakfast (i didn't have time this morning since I had a trial student for my babies classes); lunch was bento w/ genmai, koya-dofu, umeboshi and spinach, red pepper, raisin, sunflower seed salad; dinner was sweet potato & pumpkin soup with plenty of garlic, ginger and spices.

4. Name a vegan food that you know exists but you have never tried.

Teese!
Teese!

5. The Food Network just called and needs you to start your new show tomorrow. What will the title of the show be?

Not Your Mom's Cooking Show
Vegan, Vegan, Pants on Fire: Sarah's Awesome Spicy Cooking Show

6. Favorite hot sauce or other spicy condiment?

Mustard
Wow, how can I even begin to answer that one?! I like everything spicy! My favourite hot sauces are Cholula and Sriracha (cock sauce, haha). But my favourite spicy thing right now is definetely chipotle. Mmmm, my lust for chipotle has even led to scandalous behaviour such as aiding and abetting the theft of cans of the stuff from Mexican restaurants. Don't tell anyone that though cause I might get deported ;)

7. How old were you when you became vegetarian/vegan?

vegetarian 19/ vegan 27
vegetarian 11/ vegan 17

8. Favorite vegan cheeze?
I've never had vegan cheeze and this makes me cry on the inside. Someone please send me some...for the love of god! I dream of the day vegan cheeze comes to Japan. Oh, but I sometimes make the cheezy sauce from Cozy Inside and use it for nachos and mac and cheese.
I've had Cheezly and Scheese and I think some other cheeze slice things. Scheese is awesome, I really miss it.

9. Cutest baby animal?

ME!
Wow, tough question. All baby animals are cute! Baby elephants are pretty fricking awesome though. And tapirs. Cause tapirs are fucking cool. You know it's true!!

10. Favorite type of jam/jelly/marmalade/preserves?

I think that would have to be blueberry.
I like raspberry jam and orange marmalade (the ones with the big chunky bits in).

11. Do you take any vitamins/supplements?

Yes, I take B12 in pill form a few times a week. I also take a multi-vitamin, but I'm running out so I take it irregularly now. Then I take an Omega 3 capsule once a week or so.
I take a multivitamin/mineral complex whenever I remember (probably about every other day or so). If I had some flaxseed oil capsules, I'd take them again because I felt awesome when I used to take them before.

12. What food/dish most embodies the Fall season?

Soup! Any and all kinds! Especially pumpkin!
Pumpkins, apples, squash, parsnips... Lots of root vegetables.

13. What food would you have a hard time living without?

Gluten, does that count? I use it to make all sorts of burgers and sausages.
Chilis! Maybe hot sauce, haha. I got really cranky when I went back home to Edinburgh last Christmas and there was no hot sauce in the house. Oh wait, maybe garlic!

14. Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?

Hot chocolate.
Coffee!!!

15. It's 10PM and you're starving. What do you eat?

Popcorn or bake some dessert.
Well, I probably just got home from work so dinner, haha. If not dinner, I'll eat some cereal or crackers with hummus, pate or whatever spreadable substance I have lying around.

16. If you have an animal companion, what is his/her favorite food?

Sadly, I do not.
My awesome little Peabody (White's Tree Frog) sadly died a little while back :(

17. Worst injury you've gotten in the kitchen?

When I was about 13 or 14, I was babysitting and making pizza for dinner for the kids. I couldn't find their oven mitts, so I wrapped a towel around my hand and used that. The towel came unwrapped, just as the side of my thumb came in contact with the rack. I have about an inch long rack shaped scare on the back of my thumb, but it's faded with age.
In Home Economics class in high school, I once almost sliced off the top of my thumb when I was cutting plums. My plum crumble turned out very well though if I remember rightly.

18. When you have a food-related question, who do you call?

The freaks at Vegan Freak Forums! Or my co-blogger Sarah.
Pamela :)

19. Summer is ending- What food will you miss most?

Fruit and tomatoes.
In Japan, nothing because autumn and winter food is much better. In Scotland, local strawberries and wild brambles.

20. What snacks do you keep in your purse/backpack/desk at work?

I try not to keep too many snacks around, because I just eat them all. I have no self control. Also, I teach and don't like to eat between classes, nor are we allowed to have students see us eating.
Nothing usually. Sometimes I have pretzels at work.

21. Favorite soup to make on a rainy day?

I hardly make soups twice, since there are so many good ones to try out there. But I've made Fat Free Vegan's chili and Dreena Burton's Sniffle soups a couple of times.
I've never really followed a soup recipe, I just use whatever is lying around. If I have the ingredients though, I like to make pumpkin/butternut squash, sweet potato and apple soup. Yum!

22. What's your favorite combination of fresh vegetable and/or fruit juices?

I like just a vegetable juice like V8, I don't like the ones with fruit and veggies mixed very much.
Apple, carrot and ginger is really good. There is a juice bar near my house in Edinburgh that has something really good with beetroot in it but I've forgotten what the other ingredients are.

23. Favorite brand of root beer?

I can't remember the name...it's been so long. I pretty much only get A & W here, but that's definitely not my favorite.
That's like asking me to choose what the tastiest kind of shit is! I've said it a thousand times and I'm gonna say it again - root beer is pure liquid evil.

24. Make up your own question!
What's for dinner tonight?
Stuffed koya-dofu. There will be a recipe of this in the nearish future.

Do you sometimes want to punch random people in the back of the head?
Hell yeah.

-- Pamela & Sarah

The Vegetarian Festival

2008-10-06T08:56:00.011+09:00

Yesterday was crazy busy!

I went to Nagoya to see the boy's band play at Diamond Hall. You can check them out here. Actually both of our boyfriend's are in Cutie Pi (mine plays trombone and Sarah's plays drums), we are very inscentious.

After his band, I stayed to watch The Cherry Cokes. If you can imagine, they are a Japanese 'Irish' punk band. It was a fun show and I'm definitely glad I went, since I got to see a few bands from Tokyo that I don't get to see much.

But before the show I went to the Vegetarian Festival in KYOTO. Now, if you don't know the geography of Japan, let me explain...Kyoto is north of Osaka, it's about a 30 minute train ride from my house. When the festival finished, I took the train back home. Then drove my car up to Maibara, which took about an hour and a half. Then I parked at that station and took a train to Nagoya, which also took an hour and a half. I had to drive up there and park, because the last trains out of Nagoya couldn't get me back to my station. I got back to Maibara at midnight and then drove home in a record hour. It's Monday morning, I'm at work and feeling kinda tired, especially since I'm going to do it all again...Tomorrow, one of my favorite bands, Strike Anywhere, is coming to Japan!

Anyway, onto the festival...

So we planned to hand out our zine and see if we could get any donations, but those plans were thwarted. Apparently, you have to have permission to hand out free magazines in a public park. (i.e. You need to give the festival organizers money!) Whatever, it worked out for the better. We went to the three animal rights groups tabels (JAVA, ALIVE, No Fur Osaka) and showed them our zine and asked if we could leave our zines at their tables. They all more than happily agreed and we witnessed our zines being picked up by many people. This saved us a bunch of time of having to bow repeatedly in the rain while handing out our zine. So with that accomplished, we took a stroll around the festival. I'd say the majority of the tables were food stalls. We learned about a few new restaurants that we will hopefully have the chance to check out. There were also a bunch of shops selling things like handmade soaps and lotions. A few stalls doing free reflexology. And a few other NGOs dealing with things like hunger or the environment.

You can see the women in black is straightening up our zines on their table.

One of the anti-fur tables. Unfortunately, most of their pictures were from the PETA's rather go naked campaign (on the other side of the wall). Hopefully, that welfare crap won't take hold in Japan. But I'm not holding my breath. A general lack of a women's rights movement doesn't help things.

This year's festival had more tables than last year, which was good. Unfortunately, it rained the whole day, so I'm sure some people didn't come. The animal rights groups tables had even better displays this year than last year and very central positions, so hopefully many people saw what they had and took their literature. Thankfully, I didn't see anyone wearing fur, but loads of leather boots and handbags. I got a few new pins for my bag and some stickers and some anti-fur cards to hand out to people I see on the streets.

--Pamela

Japanese Breakfast

2008-10-03T11:57:00.003+09:00

In Japan, people don't have the same seperation in the West of what food is suitable for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The meal that most visitors are shocked with is breakfast. Of course, along with the import of Western culture, came Western food so many Japanese people now eat cereal, oatmeal, toast etc for breakfast. However, a traditional Japanese breakfast usually consists of some grilled fish, a bowl of rice, miso shiru (soup), some pickles, seaweed, perhaps some salad, tofu or another side dish such as natto. A raw egg is often also provided in hotel breakfasts, though despite my spying efforts, I've never actually managed to figure out exactly what the customer is intended to do with said egg. Anyway, it usually looks something like this...

Personally, it took me a good few months of living in Japan, before I could even contemplate eating a bowl of rice with salty pickles for breakfast! These days though, I quite often eat my dinner leftovers with rice for the first meal of the day. So would you like to try a very simple Japanese breakfast?

"Anything goes" Miso Shiru

The two essentials:

3-4 cups Kombu dashi (see my post here about how to make this)

1/3 to 2/3 cup Miso paste (I like to use a combination of sweet white miso and saltier red)

Red miso on the left, white miso on right

Your choice of ingredients! Why not try:
Carrots, sliced into rounds
Pumpkin, cubed
Onion, cut into thick chunks
Mushrooms (shiitake are especially good), halved or sliced
Daikon, cut into 1-inch sticks
Potatoes, peeled and cut into sticks or chunks
To serve: Spring onions/scallions, thinly sliced

Tofu time:
1 pack Silken tofu, cubed
1 pack Aburage (deep-fried tofu pouches), sliced into strips or triangles

Good combinations:
- Pumpkin, carrot, onion, aburage
- Silken tofu, spring onions (light miso)
- Potatoes, onions (dark miso)
- Daikon, aburage
- Shiitake, spring onions

Miso Shiru 101:

1) Heat the dashi until it comes to a simmer. Start adding your vegetables (as a general rule, the harder the vegetable, the longer is will take to cook. Thus, adding carrots and potatoes first is a good idea).
2) Once your hard vegetables have started to soften, start adding the rest of the ingredients.
3) Add the tofu (if using) and allow to heat through.
4) Now is the important part - don't kill all the nutritious goodness in your miso!!
When your soup ingredients are ready, turn off the heat. Remove a small amount of stock and make a paste with the miso. Add this back to the main pot and mix through. Continue doing this until the desired depth of taste is reached.
5) Add the spring onions and serve immediately.

My breakfast :)

(pumpkin, carrot, onion, aburage miso and ume/shiso onigiri)

-- Sarah

Issue #2

2008-10-02T11:58:00.000+09:00

We have completed Issue #2!

It was a pretty miserable weekend. I caught a cold on Friday and the temperature dropped suddenly. And Sarah hates waking up early. But she got up and took the train to my boyfriend's parent's house. We used their house since they were out of town and our bf's were helping us out with some last minute translating and we would need a printer. This was our last chance to do it before the Vegetarian Festival this weekend. So we put on hoodies and got work.

The second issue was much easier since we already have a basic format that we use.

This is us hard at work munching on guacamole.

This is Ume (my bf) totally NOT helping. He enjoyed annoying us with the iPod's game's sound.

Haha! But seriously, we appreciate the help of the various people who translate what we write or check our translations. We couldn't do this without them!

I'll give you a few pictures of the finished Zine.

We did an essay about fur for this issue. The featured band was Suicide Machines. Here you can see a bio and the translations of one of their songs.

We also had some yummy eats to fuel our work.

Lunch was made by Ume. It was his specialty: pepperoncino. (On a side note, is it a Japanese version of a real Italian dish? I've never heard the name or eaten it until I came to Japan, but it's at EVERY Italian restaurant here. It's just fried garlic and sliced red chilies mixed with spaghetti and of course lots of olive oil.)

We also ate guacamole, but as you can see from the above picture, it was gone before we could take a picture.

We also made some pizzas with the crusts I had frozen. Ume likes his with a lot of corn...

If you want to get a copy of Issue #2, please contact us. Also, if you get your hands on a copy and end up at our blog, please let us know in the comments section. We're interested in how people find us.

This blog was started originally to be an English version of our zine. But we're finding that we use it more as a supplement to the zine, as the topics we cover are widely known by our English speaking readers. We apologize for the lack of Japanese on this site and hope to add more as we can.

--Pamela

Restaurant Review: Cafe Proverb and The Inagural Mofo Post

2008-10-01T08:45:00.000+09:00

I thought I'd kick off the Vegan Mofo by following up on our Cafe Proverb visit. We went there for dinner about a week ago. It's in the spot of the old Cafe Peace and has thankfully stuck with vegan offerings. Apparently, the owner of Cafe Proverb has written several books (that were on display) and is some sort of minister, thus the name. But otherwise you wouldn't know it. The decor was awesome and I'd say a step up from the hippie-ish vibe of Cafe Peace. This place felt, cool, modern, and comfortable all at the same time.

We started out with gyoza appetizers. Here is the view of the outside and inside.

They were served with a dipping sauce that was a tad spicy, but not too much (and trust me, I'm the biggest spice wimp).

Then the entrees came...

Sarah went for the Veggie Cutlet Curry (1300 yen).

This is based on a Japanese pork cutlet dish. I'll let her comment, as I only took one bite.

I had the much acclaimed Teriayki Tempeh Sandwich with added grilled onions (1280 yen). This was one of the best sandwiches I've had as a vegan. No, I take that back, it IS the best sandwich I've had as a vegan. Also, sandwich bread is impossible to buy in Japan (NOT vegan), so I rarely get to have a sandwich. Something that I think most vegans can't imagine. (Some baguettes are vegan, but that's it, so I sometimes eat those.)

Anyway, the sauce that was smothered on the tempeh was perfect. But it was also complimented by the mayo. There were also avocados, yellow peppers, and lettuce on the sandwich. I think there were some other subtles things to the sandwich that I make it difficult to replicate. I guess I'll just have to go back!

The menu also had other Japanese favorites like ramen (another very NOT vegan food, usually), a natto bowl, and curry. I want to work my way through the menu, but I think it will be very hard to not order that sandwich every time.

Look how much we enjoyed our food! Sarah on the top, me on the bottom (Hey, get your minds out of the gutter!).

Oh my gosh! I almost forgot dessert!

They change the menu with the seasons and we were just in time for the start of the fall menu.

Sarah got the Caramel Apple Crumble, which from my one bite was heavenly.

I ordered the Chocolate Cake. After our orgasmic experience at Eat More Greens, I have to admit this chocolate cake was just ok. It felt a little dry and like there was just a ton of cocoa powder in it.

As you can tell, we will definitely be going back here! And hopefully soon! My boyfriend and I already have plans to check it out.

--Pamela

Kyoto Vegetarian Festival and Zine

2008-09-24T09:19:00.005+09:00

Our second zine is coming out. We are finalizing it this weekend and will be distributing it for the first time at the Kyoto Vegetarian Festival on October 5th. You can check out the festival here. We went last year and there was so good food and lots of free pamphlets to pick up.

Zineの２番目はもうすぐ出す！楽しみに待って下さい。京都ベジタリアンフェスティバルは１０月５日なので来てほしい。あそこで、２番目をゲットできる！

--Pamela

We've Joined the Ranks!

2008-09-19T10:17:00.004+09:00

For the month of October Sarah and I pledge to post at least 20 posts. We will do our best to fill this challenge as part of the Vegan Mofo.

We've already got some posts in mind. Be warned!

Here are some of the ideas provided, so maybe you'll be seeing some of this.

* Your first vegan/vegetarian restaurant memory
* Something you used to cook but don’t anymore
* Try to cook/bake something that intimidates you
* Write about your grandma’s holiday cooking
* your favorite dish to bring to a potluck
* your favorite meal to cook for people who are scared of vegan food
* your favorite meal to cook for your parents/in-laws
* use an grain you’ve never used before
* use a fruit or vegetable you’ve never used before
* veganize a recipe from your childhood
* cook dinner for a friend as a surprise and drop it off right after work
* cook an all-local ingredients meal
* Write about your favorite songs to cook to
* Keep a photo food journal for the entire day
* Veganize a recipe
* Tell the story of the first time you tried tofu
* Take a cookbook that you don’t use very often and make one new recipe out of it every day for a week
* Post pictures of yourself wearing nothing but Earth Balance and a smile

--Pamela

New Vegan restaurant in Kyoto!

2008-09-03T20:01:00.006+09:00

A while ago, me and Pamela (I know it's "Pamela and I" but I feel like a pretentious twat when I use correct grammar so deal with it!) met up with two very lovely Vegan Freaks from New Zealand. I live in Osaka and Pam lives in Shiga so it was easy for both of us to make it to Kyoto and try and hook them up with some tasty vegan fare.

We planned to meet them outside a famous cafe called Sunny Place. I'd been wanting to go there for a long time since I heard that their "chicken" kara-age (deep-fried chicken) and "pork" burgers were delicious. However, when we got there and checked the menu, it seemed like they were actually selling meat not the vegan analogs we expected. In the end, we all decided just to have drinks and then head to a nearby tofu restaurant (which worked out great, check the pictures at the end of the post).

I'd kind of forgotten about all that meat/fake-meat confusion until today. So I set about finding out the truth! Or at least I tried to and then gave up. The websites and pictures that I found, seem to show a very different restaurant than the one we went to. I know that Sunny Place moved so I presume that they are old pictures but, the menu is also different and used to have a clear mark stating "Vegan & Vegetarian" which is doesn't have now.... Oh well.

"Better is a dish of vegetables where
love is, Than a fattened ox and hatred with it"

My research did yield some unexpected happy results though! I discovered that a new vegan restaurant has opened in Kyoto. Yay!! Cafe Proverbs serves, amongst other things, teriyaki tempeh sandwiches, spicy curries, veggie meat miso ankake, nasi goreng, taco rice, various kinds of ramen bowls, gyoza and "meat" satay. They also have some delicious sounding drinks such as the maple green tea latte, soy spice tea, organic tropical cocktail tea and a premium cafe latte made with rice and soy milk. Oh, and of course, they have desserts ;)

Here's the link to the menu for your perusual: Cafe Proverb [15:17]

Food photographs from the first (??) Vegan Freaks meet-up in Japan!

-- Sarah

The Vegan's Hundred

2008-08-30T16:13:00.008+09:00

I came across this fun list while reading the many, many blogs I read, so I thought I'd give it a try. It was originally from this blog My Sweet Vegan. Since this blog has 2 people doing it, I'll post mine in blue and hopefully Sarah can add hers in another color.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

1) Copy this list into your own blog, including these instructions.

2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.

3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

4) Post a comment here once you’ve finished and link your post back to this one.

5) Pass it on!

1. Natto
Tried it a few times, still not a fan
Meh, I wouldn't really choose to eat it but it's ok once you get over the smell and appearance factors!

2. Green Smoothie
Yum!
Yep, they are good.

3. Tofu Scramble
Of course!
I <3>

4. Haggis
Well, I am Scottish and I believe it's pretty much a prerequistite to like haggis.

5. Mangosteen
Been to Thailand a few times and eaten it, but don't actually remember it well
I've only had the juice.

6. Creme brulee

7. Fondue
Only had it in my pregan days but melted cheese freaks me out. Blech.

8. Marmite/Vegemite
Tried Vegeminite once
I always have Marmite in my kitchen because it's got lot's of B vitamins and it's useful for cooking sometimes.

9. Borscht
Had it once at my Polish friend's house. I don't remember if I liked it though.

10. Baba ghanoush
Wasn't a huge fan the few times, I've tried
I love it!! So good with falafel and chilli sauce in a wrap!!

11. Nachos
All the time, using the Cozy Inside recipe
Duh, everyone eats nachos. I like 'em with re-fried beans, gaucamole, fresh salsa and loads of hot sauce :)

12. Authentic soba noodles
Ugh, I live in Japan
Ditto.

13. PB&J sandwich
Of course! It was my lunch box classic in Primary School. Peanut butter and banana is better though IMO.

14. Aloo gobi
Uhhhh, again. Did I mention I'm Scottish? Curry is our national dish and aloo gobi is a vegetarian classic. I've probably eaten aloo gobi around 400 times (at a conservative estimate)

15. Taco from a street cart

16. Boba Tea Oh, yeah...

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
Yep, I've had raspberry, strawberry and elderflower wine.

19. Gyoza
I believe my gyoza recipe is one of the first posts on this blog.
Gyoza are yummy.

20. Vanilla ice cream
I like Rice Dream. Mixing vanilla ice-cream in a blender with banana, maple syrup and soya milk is also good.

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries
I picked berries every summer in Scotland since I acquired the motor skills for such a task. I used to give baskets of them to my granny and she'd make jam and pies. Mmmm :)

23. Ceviche

24. Rice and beans
Most recently with the Chickpeas from ED&BV
Good stuff.

25. Knish

26. Raw scotch bonnet pepper
I'm sure I've tried to show off by eating these at some point. Just don't touch your face after you chop them - ouch!

27. Dulce de leche

28. Caviar
yeah unfortunately. Puke.

29. Baklava
Yeah!! Good with some sweet mint tea.

30. Pate
I think so
Tartex yeast pate is delicious. I get my family to ship it to my in Japan.

31. Wasabi peas
Yep
I've tried them but I hate them. Wasabi somehow manages to taste like plastic and metal simultaneously.

32. Chowder in a sourdough bowl

33. Mango lassi
Yeah, so good!!

34. Sauerkraut
Love!
Same here!

35. Root beer float
Disgusting. Root Beer tastes like poor evil.

36. Mulled cider
Mmm, so good on a cold Scottish winter evening.

37. Scones with buttery spread and jam
Yeah, I love scones. I've never been able to make good ones though...

38. Vodka jelly
yeah, hahahaha

39. Gumbo
I love okra

40. Fast food french fries
Does Big Boy count?
Hmmm, I've had fries from Burger King at some point in my life I believe.

41. Raw Brownies

42. Fresh Garbanzo Beans
good!

43. Dahl
I lived off this stuff in Malaysia
When I was a student I ate dahl at least 2 times a week. So cheap and easy! And it gives me an excuse to eat mango chutney.

44. Homemade Soymilk

45. Wine from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

46. Stroopwafle
In Amsterdam :D

47. Samosas
Yep
Yeah, I love samosas with masala sauce, pickles and chutney.

48. Vegetable Sushi
Well, pretty much only cucumber
I do live in Japan, haha

49. Glazed doughnut Yeah, Vegan Essentials

50. Seaweed
Again, I live in Japan
Yum! salty sea goodness is tasty.

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi
See previous post, I can ship some if anyone wants to try it...
Just ate some in my udon.

53. Tofurkey
In my Bregan days
Yep.

54. Sheese
I frickin love Scheese! I want to make a pilgrimage to Bute to visit their factory, haha.

55. Cotton candy
Yes
Yeah, always gets caught in my hair though.

56. Gnocchi
Yes
Many times but I don't like it very much.

57. Piña colada
I think so
If you like pina colada, and getting caught in the rain... I like booze.

58. Birch beer I feel like I have

59. Scrapple
(N.B. I had no idea what this was so I googled it. I would never eat that, it sounds disgusting!!)

60. Carob chips
Yes
yummy.

61. S’mores

62. Soy curls

63. Chickpea cutlets
Just had one for lunch
Yeah, they rock!

64. Curry
Still not my favorite food, but sometimes I need my curry fix
Curry is my religion. Bhindi masala, bhaigan bharta, chana masala, dhansak, with pakoras and parathas and pickles and chutneys... Aaaah, drool!

65. Durian I made that mistake twice: in Thailand and Malaysia

66. Homemade Sausages
Had them just last week
Yeah, Pam's sausages are good. Hehe, that sounds vaguely dirty.

67. Churros, elephant ears, or funnel cake
Not vegan versions
Churros are sooo good! With Mexican hot chocolate... mmm, paradise.

68. Smoked tofu
yeah, it's good.

69. Fried plantain
Back in the day
Yep, in a Jamaican restaurant in Edinburgh

70. Mochi
Of course!
Yep, I love me some mochi.

71. Gazpacho
yeah, my friend's gazpaho is pretty tasty.

72. Warm chocolate chip cookies
Oh yeah!
mmmmmmm :)

73. Absinthe
oh yeah.... but I never remember what happens after I drink it so I tend to avoid it these days!

74. Corn on the cob
Yep
Yep

75. Whipped cream, straight from the can
Not from the can, but from the box
Yep, Soyatoo from the can :P

76. Pomegranate
really annoying to eat but worth the effort if you get a good one.

77. Fauxstess Cupcake

78. Mashed potatoes with gravy
Uh, Yeah!
yeah, great comfort food

79. Jerky
Yeah, to Vegan Essentials, again
Primal Strips (smoked hickory) are the shiznit

80. Croissants
Toasted with hazelnut chocolate spread and a cup of coffee in the morning, aaaaahhh...

81. French onion soup
yeah, I'm not a big fan though.

82. Savory crepes
Yeah, galettes are good (depending on what's inside cause they eat some wierd shit in those things)

83. Tings

84. A meal at Candle 79

85. Moussaka
My mum's moussaka is one of my favourite foods

86. Sprouted grains or seeds
Yeah, I like to put them in hummus sandwiches and in salads

87. Macaroni and “cheese”
I usually make the Cozy Inside recipe
Anything that I can put hot sauce on is a good thing :)

89. Matzoh ball soup

90. White chocolate
Yes but I've never been able to find it again since that one time.

91. Seitan
I heart Seitan
Yeah, praise seitan!

92. Kimchi
Unfortunately
Kimchi is so good! The hotter the better!

93. Butterscotch chips

94. Yellow watermelon

95. Chili with chocolate
I've had it a few times, good stuff.

96. Bagel and Tofutti
Yeah, so good! I miss tofutti.

97. Potato milk

98. Polenta
Not for a long time but I like it.

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
Yeah, I'm a coffee connoisseur. Ethiopian Harar coffee kicks the ass of Jamaican coffee though.

100. Raw cookie dough
Of course
C'mon, everyone has eaten raw cookie dough surely?

There were a lot more foods that I haven't tried than I thought there'd be...I'll have to get to work.
--Pamela

76/100 - I'm happy with that! There aren't really many foods that I won't try though. If it's vegan, I'll eat it! A lot of the things I haven't tried are specific to North America too (like Tings, S'mores, Fauxstess Cupcakes etc.) so I've never had access to them. If I ever go to the States again, I'll be sure to load up on the junk food though!
-- Sarah

The Wonderful Little Ume

2008-07-30T14:23:00.009+09:00

I have a few food posts floating around my head, so here's a start.

I want to talk about the wonderful food known as ume-boshi （梅干し）. This is one of my favorite Japanese foods. This shocks most Japanese people because it's very sour and often used as a food to torture unsuspecting guests. Many Japanese people also don't like it.

Ume is a great vegan food. Just be sure to check it doesn't contain honey （はちみつ） or fish stock （かつお）. You can of course pickle it yourself. もちろん、自分で作れる！I'm currently helping my boyfriend's family pickle their ume. Traditionally, each family has their own recipe for making ume boshi, so I can't vouch for the ones I've given, but the Japanese one has loads of pictures so you can see the whole process. I also can't divulge his families secret recipe that will hopefully be passed down to me someday in a ceremony that involved me bowing at the alter of the ume boshi god.*

Now the pickling season is well underway, I think all the raw ume have disappeared from the supermarkets, so you might have to wait until next year to do your own pickeling, but trust me, its so worth it. Even if you just make a small batch on your tiny balcony.

I thought it would also be cool if I taught you some ways to use the magical fruit. I wish I had more recipes, but really once you get a tast for it, you can do anything with it.

There's the traditional eat it with your rice method (which I enjoy most mornings). Just eat a little bit of Ume with each bite of rice.

Another fravorite method of mine is to just add one to any bowl of udon your eating. The heat of the broth sort of helps to break apart the ume-boshi and then gives the broth a hint of sourness.

Another is with pasta. Chop up a few of them, add some thinly sliced aojiso leaves, oil, and then maybe add some fish free ponzu. It kind of works like a pesto. This ones really flexible, you can add tomatoes or garlic too. Mix it all with some spaghetti.

Of course, you can always make your own ume-shu (a very sweet liquer).

Ok, those are my favorite ways to eat ume-boshi. One we finish pickling them, I tend to have at least one a day. Do you have any other suggestions?

Here's a look at the Ume-boshi we've got in the works.

Oh yeah, that might last me for like half a year.

Here they are being dried in the sunshine for the first day, two more days of this until I can stuff my face.
The money shot!

*Just kidding, as far as I know there is no ume boshi god, but it sounds better than saying his mom's gonna teach me the recipe.

--Pamela

私たちの地球

2008-07-11T16:33:00.005+09:00

Take a look at this article for ways we can help the environment.

Of course, going vegan is missing from this list, yet is one of the best things you can do it help the environment. As you can see in this study by the UN.

Here's one more. This one lists 100 foods, no environmentalist should eat.

ビーガンになることは環境にとっては一番できることですよ！

What are you doing to help the enivronment? List your ideas here!

あなたは環境のために何をしてるですか？コメントで教えて下さい！

--Pamela

Feeling hungry?...

2008-06-27T18:33:00.006+09:00

I feel that Punk You is still lacking the drool-factor required for a successful vegan blog. Thus, I have decided to try to remedy this by including more food prOn in my posts!

Some recent culinary adventures:

Vegan tonkatsu (from the Asian Vegan Kitchen) with Japanese style simmered pumpkin and new potatoes

My modified version of General Tao's Tofu. That sauce is the shit! Highly recommended!

Vietname-style spring rolls (from the Asian Vegan Kitchen)

No-bake Black Bottom Peanut Butter Silk Pie from Vegan With A Vengeance. Soooo good!

And finally, I'll leave you with the money shot ;)

-- Sarah

As You Like It

2008-06-08T00:14:00.007+09:00

It's been a while since we posted a recipe so I figured it was time for some food p0rn :)

After my eagerly anticipated copy of The Asian Vegan Kitchen arrived, I quickly flipped through, drooled over the pictures and scanned the Japanese section for veganized versions of any cult classics. I was not dissapointed!

I live in Osaka and, sorry if I'm insulting your intelligence as you may know this already, but Osaka is regarded as the kitchen of Japan. Yes, Tokyo may be the culinary destination of most travellers and indeed, Tokyo does have amazing international food. But Osaka has the Japanese soul food that I love so much. So without further ado, allow me to introduce you to a very famous Osaka speciality and one of my own personal favourite foods - okonomiyaki (which approximately translates as "as you like it"). Seriously, if you don't like okonomiyaki, I don't think you can be my friend.

This.....

...becomes this.....

....which becomes this...

....which eventually becomes this saucy fellow.

Ok, sorry for the delay! I didn't realise that it had been so long!

Recipe (serves 2/4 depeding on how greedy you are)

Ingredients:

2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup (240ml) dashi*

2 teaspoons white miso

1 tablespoon mirin

1 tablespoon sake

2 cups (90g) white cabbage (Chinese variety is probably best), finely shredded

2 tablespoons beni shoga pickled ginger (optional, but if you can get it, it's yummy!)

White pepper and salt to taste

Vegetable oil

Fillings:

Okonomiyaki is very versatile. In Osaka, pork is a popular filling. As is cheese, shrimp, beef and various other non-vegan options. For your okonomi, you can use any vegetable, meat analog, "cheese" chunks or anything you like really. I love sweet corn in my okonomiyaki and I also really love kimchi, mochi and spring onions (scallions), though not all together! The key is not to overload your mixture with ingredients - you want to use about 1-2 cups of your fillings for this particular recipe. If this is your first time to eat and try making okonomiyaki, I'd stick with 1 or 2 fillings and see how you like it :) Or do what I do, and make a couple of different varieties to share.

*To make dashi, you will need 1 or 2 large sheets of kombu. Try to find ones that are the closest to black in colour and have a fine white powder on them. Using a damp cloth, give the kombu a gentle wipe and then let it soak in about 3 cups of water for 1 hour. If you are short on time, put your water and kombu in a saucepan and start to simmer gently. As soon as the water starts to boil, remove the kombu. You can also buy instant kombu dashi which comes in little paper sachets usually, but be careful of added fishy ingredients if you want to use that!

Toppings

Nori flakes (or 1 sheet, toasted and cut or pulverised into fine strips)

Vegan mayonnaise

Vegan okonomiyaki/tonkatsu sauce (Bulldog brand tonkatsu sauce is vegan)

OR brown sauce (if you live in the UK, you know what I mean)

OR you can make the sauce from The Asian Vegan Kitchen for which you will need:

1/2 cup of dashi

1/2 teaspoon potato starch

4 tablespoons tomato ketchup

1/2 teaspoon karashi mustard

2 tablespoons shoyu

1/2 teaspoon each of grated garlic and ginger

2 tablespoons castor sugar

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon mirin

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 3-4 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

The Fun Part:

1. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. In a seperate bowl, combine your wet ingredients (dashi, mirin, miso, sake) and mix together to dissolve the miso. Add the wet ingredients to your dry ones and mix together trying not to make it all clumpy. Stir in your shredded cabbage and beni shoga (if using). If you want to make more than one kind of okonomi, then separate your mixture now before you add the fillings (this mixture should make about 4 pancakes btw). Stir in your fillings and season with salt and pepper. Make sure you've mixed thoroughly so as to coat all the veggies in the batter.

2. Heat a little vegetable oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Put in 1/4 of the batter and spread out to make a thick pancake. Cook for about 4 minutes, then drizzle a little more oil down the sides of the pan. Flip the pancake over and cook for about another 4 minutes. (If your pancake is very thick, you may need to cook for a little longer on each side to ensure that it's not just floury and raw on the inside). Repeat until you've used up all the batter.

3. Brush about a tablespoon of sauce over each okonomiyaki (it's the best bit so keep the remainder handy so you add more). Do the same for the mayonnaise, using as much as you like. Sprinkle the nori flakes artfully on top. Eat!

N.B. I didn't use sake when I made this, and I don't think it really made any difference. Don't stress out to much if you don't have sake and mirin. If you don't really cook Japanese food, then it's not neccessary to run out and buy them just for this, IMO. Most okonomiyaki restaurants don't use dashi, mirin, miso or sake. However, they do use eggs of course so you'll need something to replace that as a binding agent. The traditional recipe uses grated naga-imo (a long, hairy yam type thing) or yama-imo (a long, smooth yam type thing) which makes a big sticky mess and holds the batter together. If you can find one of them in your grocery store, give it a try!

-- Sarah

Restaurant Reviews: Vegan Healing Cafe

2008-05-23T14:03:00.010+09:00

After a day of pounding the rainy streets of Tokyo, who doesn't need a little healing right? Well, actually, both Pamela and I didn't have this place down as a first choice on our restaurant schedule but boy, am I glad that we ended up here!
Not only is it the only restaurant in Japan that I know of that has the word "vegan" in it's name but the place is choc full of literature on animal rights and promotes veganism as an ethical lifestyle not just a fashion or health fad. Pamela particularly loved their NO FUR signs and we wondered whether the staff would actually refuse to serve anyone wearing fur?....

The Vegan Healing Cafe is located on a quiet street near to one of the main drag's from Shibuya station. It's a very small place though it was quiet when we arrived. They have a couple of tables outside which I'm sure would be a nice spot for some people watching while you enjoy drinking your black sesame and kinako soy milk!

Anyway, on to the important stuff: the menu!
The menu is small but all delicious sounding. Pamela and I both opted for the tempeh sausage which was served with genmai (brown rice) and a salad as well as some sort of delicious sauce. Our Tokyo friend decided on the felafel burger which, as the same suggests, was a large felafel patty accompanied by the same trimmings as our sausages. All the food was delicous and while it all seemed very healthy, it was also very satisfying! The tempeh sausages were very moist and were very nicely complimented by the sauce. Our main courses were priced at 1000 and 950 yen respectively so also easy on the wallet as well as the stomach and conscience!

Of course, something would have to be seriously amiss if I didn't sample a vegan dessert when presented with that option, haha. As soon as I saw the dessert cooler, I knew the chocolate almond tofu tart (380 yen) had to be mine! Pamela opted for that one too while our friend went for the soy whip cake (480 yen). Since it was an おすすめ (recommended) option, Pam and I added the soy whip on the side for an extra 100 yen.
My verdict? Delicious! All the cakes were delicious! The soy whip cake was light and airy with a refreshing citrus tang and the choc tart was, well, exactly as I expected really - indulgent and filling. Yum. I was extremely satisfied after this meal.

Perhaps best of all, since this restaurant is truly vegan in the ethical sense, we knew that none of our money was going towards the purchase of any nasty cow juice or chicken mentstrual waste products. They also had a lot of vegan cookbooks including Soy Not Oi! which I have been wanting to peruse for a long time! Oh and they also have some cool grafitti out the front which I appreciated, haha.

Anyway, if you ever find yourself tired and growing increasingly angry with the Shibuya crowds, head to The Vegan Healing Cafe for some moral and gastronomic refreshment!

-- Sarah

I hope they ban meat eaters. Can you imagine..."Excuse me ma'am. Could you leave the former animal that died a slow painful death so you could wear it, at the door? kthx."

Sarah and my tempeh sausages. I forgot to get a picture before diving straight into them.MMmmmm.....cake......

While Sarah and I do not support Peta, it's still pretty cool to see the 'Fur is dead' van parked outside the restaurant. I don't know if they are connected to eachother.

And that concludes our Tokyo escapade! I want more!

--Pamela

Restaurant Reviews: Tsubu Tsubu Cafe

2008-05-23T09:00:00.007+09:00

Our third stop in Tokyo was Tsubu Tsubu Cafe (-or- (http://www.team-e.jp/ilfa/map.html). This is near Ushikagome Station on the Oeda Line. The map is a little hard to understand and we had to ask someone, but we found it. It's located in a neighborhood of mostly houses.

That morning we spent a little too much time at the Apple Store (getting my iPod fixed) and Urban Decay (getting vegan makeup) so we totally missed the lunch time and thus had very limited options that we could order.

There were only two things we could choose from, pizza on naan or a veggie burger. Since Sarah had the burger at Deva Deva she went with the pizza. I have no idea what that sauce was, but it was garlic yuminess.

Our Tokyo BFF and I ordered the veggie burger since we had pizzas at Deva Deva. It used a miso paste for the flavoring and some other things that I couldn't quite place.

The service was a bit lacking. Maybe we just caught them on a bad day, but the girl on the register seemed confused and overwhelmed even though they didn't appear to be busy. The power also went out right after we got there, which was kind of cool because the place makes it's own energy. The whole interior was beautiful as well. I'd like to come back here and actually catch the lunch time. Lunch is from 12 to 2:30 and then cafe time is until 4:30. Upstairs they have a small shop and an office. I think the restaurant is more of a side activity and they actually focus more on producing a vegan magazine of the same name and organizing various events and teaching classes.

It's not a great picture, but you can see the counters, for teaching classes (I presume) and the whole area lining the wall is planters.

--Pamela

Restaurant Reviews: Eat More Greens

2008-05-20T09:17:00.010+09:00

On the last day in Tokyo, we went to Eat More Greens for dinner. It's close to Azabu-juban station, but could easily be walked to from Roppongi.

The restaurant is modeled after a New York eatery.

They also sell seasonal produce out front! Recently, they've also started selling all vegan bread at a case near the register. I had the rosemary and salt focaccia with my dinner and it was delicious! The breads can be taken out, as well.

The inside also resembles a restaurant from back in the states. It was a really cozy atmosphere that, vegan or not, makes you want to come in for a meal.

Ok, onto the food! The menu changes with the season and we were there for the spring menu.

Like I said before, I ordered the focaccia and it came with a side salad. For 400 yen it was definitely worth the benefit it brought to my meal.

I apologize, the lighting inside the restaurant was not so good. I ordered the Genovese pasta with spring cabbage. This was a big portion, which I appreciated, since many of the trendy veggie restaurants I've been to in Japan, tend to give very tiny portions. This was just enough food to feel full, but not ill. The bread was the perfect side to soak up all the extra pesto.

Our friend ordered the taco rice, which I only got a terrible picture of. Our food looked so yummy, we took the pictures in a hurry. Taco rice is a dish, that as far as I know, is from Okinawa. Okinawa has a large American military presence and as such, has many foods that have been influenced from American tastes. So taco rice is like a taco served over rice. I've never seen a vegan version of this anywhere else and so it was my first time having it. She said it tasted just like the original and was very good. I also liked it.

Sarah ordered the coconut curry with seasonal vegetables. Again, I didn't get a good picture. This was also very tasty.

For dessert, I was too full to order anything and they didn't do take out. I wish I'd brought my own container, because it looked amazing, there was just no way I could squeeze anything else in before having to ride a train for 2 hours. The cheesecake is not vegan, which I was very disappointed by because the it looked so good and seemed like it could have easily been vegan. Our friend got that and said it was very good. Sarah got the chocolate cake. And if you heard the noise she made as she put it in her mouth, you'd know it was amazing.

Each of our entrees were 1200 yen, so really not an expensive dinner. Also, there menu is quite big, which is again unusual for a vegan restaurant in Japan. They also have an extensive appetizer menu. Now that it's warming up, you might want to go and sit out on the patio. They open at 11:30 and stay open until 11 at night.

--Pamela

This place was awesome! It a very hip but inviting atmosphere. And seriously, that cake was aaaaammmmaaaaaazing. I almost had an orgasm... almost ;)

Here's some more pictures for your viewing pleasure:

My spring vegetable and coconut curry

The mouth orgasm cake :)

The aftermathThe inviting decor

I would gladly travel back to Tokyo just to go to hang out at this restaurant again. Which is just as well considering that eating here meant that we had to ditch our suitcases at our friend's house so we could catch the shinkansen back to Shiga, haha. Yes, we spent weeks deciding on restaurants to visit but we didn't think to check when our last train home was..... But Eat More Greens was the perfect end to a great weekend.

And remember:

-- Sarah

Restaurant Reviews: Deva Deva Cafe

2008-05-08T16:07:00.010+09:00

Our first restaurant was Deva Deva Cafe. This is in Kichijoji.

It's on the second floor, but has a nice little sign up front to help you find it.

This was Sarah's gigantic avocado burger. Sarah can tell you more about it。

I ordered the Bio sparkling lemonade. It was very refreshing and a perfect match for the gorgeous spring weather we were having. I'm also a total sucker for pizza, so I got the tomato, olive, basil pizza with vegan cheese. The crust was very crispy and a little difficult to pick up and eat with my fingers, but that didn't stop me from inhaling this in seconds. We all felt perfectly full and decided to skip dessert and left feeling refreshed and happy, as opposed to ill and weighted down. I spent about 1700 yen, I believe.

The restaurant was brightly lit from the wall of glass and everything was painted white. I'll definitely make an effort to come here again! There is also a Lush near the station, that sells vegan soaps and body care. On the way to the restaurant we also stopped at Natural House and spent ages oooohhhing and aaawwwwing at the selection of vegetarian food, much of which was too heavy for us to carry home.

Golden Week Part 1

2008-05-08T15:19:00.003+09:00

Last week was Golden week, so Sarah and I headed up to Tokyo.
先週のGWにセーラと東京に行った。

First, we went to the Hoppin & Steppin Showcase http://clubcitta.co.jp/schedule/s0804/d04.shtml#anc080504
最初、Hoppin & Steppin Showcaseのライブに行った。

It was a great show! My favorite bands of the day were Frail Head Squeeze, Dallax, Moody Rudy, and Cutie Pi ( ;) ). I haven't seen Frail Head Squeeze since September and there show was awesome. Moody Rudy was my first show, but I was quite impressed with them, they put on a good show. Several other bands were good, but I think there were the most notable.
スゴカッタ！私の好きなバンドはFrail Head Squeeze, Dallax, Moody Rudy, Cutie Piです。Frailは７ヶ月ぶり見ていた、めっちゃヤバかった。MoodyRudyって言うバンドは初めて見た、でもすごい感動した、とても盛り上がった。まぁ、他のバンドもだいたい好きだったけど。。。

Since there were 18 bands and the show was all day, we packed lunches to eat at the venue. We ate white bean hummus from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan (http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Drink-Be-Vegan-Celebrations/dp/1551522241), flatbread from Cozy Inside (http://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Inside-Delicious-comforting-recipes/dp/1604028955/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210228115&sr=1-1), couscous, tamari roasted chickpeas also from EDBV, and chopped carrots. We had quite a feast.
１８バンドがあったから、弁当を持っていった。説明はちょっと難しい。。。もちろん、ビーガンのディップ、パン、クスクス、たまり味のヒヨコ豆、とニンジンです。英語を読める方、是非おすすめの本を買って読んでください。

--Pamela

The Zine Issue #1

2008-03-11T14:19:00.012+09:00

It's finished! Our first issue of our real zine is finished!!! We will be printing it and handing out the first copies after a show this weekend.

Here's a photo montage of our crazy zine making weekend:

We started Friday night with a yummy Miso soup! This has mushrooms (a Japanese kind I can't remember the name for), fried tofu, carrots, pumpkin, and onion.

Here are a few pages laid out on my floor. We fueled ourselves with hot chocolate and sembei.

At about 3 in the morning, we called it a day. Before getting a big start the next morning, we had a big breakfast of Sarah's Tofu Scramble and pitas.

A few pages done, a bigger mess made...

Here's one of the pages close up. It wasn't totally finished at this point, but almost.

本文を欲しいと思っている人、e-mailして下さい！後、今週の土曜日(15日）にライブでgetできる！！！GeluguguのOH! GELUISM TOUR 2008にいる。

Where:　滋賀県浜大津　B-Flat　http://www.livehouse-b-flat.jp/

Time: 　Open 5:30 Start 6:30

値段：３０００円　

よろしくね！

--Pamela

So, yeah we finished! I'm not often proud of what I do, but I'll admit to being pretty damn pleased and accomplished with our work on this!

Here's some more pictures from the weekend:

The front and back covers (and some of my random doodles - I really like the dead bird!)

The "What's a Vegetarian?" page

Our celebration dinner and the finished master copy

-- Sarah

Making Miracles Out of ...this

2008-03-05T11:02:00.008+09:00

I thought people might be interested to know what kinds of kitchens we have to work with here in Japan.

This is pretty much it. My counter is only about thigh high and I only have the little counter between the sink and the stove. My stove is a two burner with a fish grill in the middle or a pine nut toaster/fire starter in my case. My fridge is about chest high and on top of that is my microwave/oven. Not pictured are the cabinets above the sink which is where I keep all my plates and bowls. Under the sink is my pots and pans and under the stove is my pantry of canned goods and all dried cooking stuff.

This is the rest. Next to the fridge I have a spice rack which I keep my oils on top of. Recently, it's also where I store overflow canned goods and some vegetables like onions and potatoes. Next to the desk is my rice cooker, which now has a fancy schmancy food processor next to it. That's it. I don't even have a table. I just eat on the floor. I would love to have a 'real' sized fridge/freezer and oven. Someday...but I've never seen a 'real' oven in Japan. I sort of have the hang of my weird convection type oven now, but it still mostly cooks the tops of things and not the bottoms.

--Pamela

Vegan Breakfast Burritos

2008-02-26T16:48:00.006+09:00

You will need:
Some music to rock out to while you cook
1 block of firm tofu
Garlic, 2/3 cloves
Onion (white or red), 1/2 medium-sized one
Tomato, 1/2 medium-sized one
Mushrooms, 2 or 3 large (I used shiitake cause they're cheap here!)
Jalapenos, 2 or 3 (depends how spicy you like it!)
Corn or flour tortillas (how many you use will depend on their size and how full you want them to be)

For seasoning:
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon soya sauce
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast (optional but I like it)
salt and pepper to taste

Recommended additions: avocado slices, hot sauce!

Instructions (as if you didn't know how to make scrambled tofu!):

1) Press your tofu between two plates. Put something heavy on the top one to help squeeze that tofu juice out... If you're lazy, you can skip the pressing - it's not totally crucial.
2) Mince your garlic, or chop it into teeny-tiny pieces by hand. Chop up your onion, tomato and mushrooms into small bited-sized chunks. Slice your jalapenos and make sure not to put your fingers in your eyes afterwards.
3) Heat about a tablespoon of oil or vegan margarine on medium heat in a frying pan and add your garlic and onion. Fry it all up until the onions start to get soft and you've inhaled enough of the delicious aroma.
4) Add your mushrooms, tomato and jalapenos and fry for a couple of minutes.
5) Sprinkle the turmeric, paprika and soya sauce into the pan and stir it up for 20 seconds or so. Add the nutritional yeast too if you're using it.
6) Crumble your tofu into the pan and give it a good stir around. You want to try not to mash it down too much but retain the chunkiness.
7) Now reduce the heat to low and let your tofu cook for about 10 minutes. If you find the mixture is sticking too much, you can add a splash of water.
8) Taste your tofu and and add salt and pepper as you like! If the mixture is still watery (you didn't press your tofu did you, you badass!) then keep it cooking on a low heat until the liquid has cooked off.

To serve:
Toast or pan-fry your tortillas to warm them up. Spoon a generous helping of tofu into each one, garnish with some fresh avocado slices and splash on the hot sauce...... yum!

P.S. This scramble is delicious with some refried beans smeared onto the tortilla first! Also, you might like adding spinach, diced red pepper and/or chipotle if you're feeling saucy. Have fun!

-- Sarah

I Love You, but You Love Meat

2008-02-24T15:31:00.011+09:00

My reason for this post was initially because of this article in the NY Times.

“If you can’t allow your partner to have latitude in what he or she eats, then maybe your problem isn’t about food”

Yes, exactly. My problem is not about the food - it's about the exploitation, abuse and murder of billions of animals, wasteful and wanton destruction of the environment, the repulsive economic agenda of the dairy and meat industries and the resistance to one of the biggest and most oppressive capitalist industries.

The "freedom of choice" and "respect for other people's opinions" arguments seem to be annoyingly frequent ones which I personally have had thrown at me for years. Whilst of course I agree that people should be allowed to live their lives however they see fit (hence I believe in de-criminalising all illegal drugs), I only support the assumption of personal liberty as far as it affects the individual.
For example, I like tattoos and piercings and if I choose to tattoo myself, the only life affected is mine. I didn't harm or hinder anyone else's life in the process. Choosing to eat meat, however, is not a personal choice for the other party involved - the animals have no choice at all to give up their lives.
A veal calf has no choice when it is removed from it's mother at only a few days old; a piglet has no choice when it is castrated and has it's tail and ears cut off; a cow has no choice when it is dismembered and butchered while conscious; a dolphin has no choice when it is crushed and drowned in a drag net; a male chick has no choice when it is ground up or suffocated because it was born the "wrong" sex.

So you can argue that it's a humans "personal choice" to eat meat, wear leather and fur, drink milk etc. But I can't support someone's choice to beat their wife. I can't support someone's choice to have slaves. I can't support someone's choice to commit rape. And I can't support someone's choice to eat meat because, just like in the previous cases, the victim has no choice at all.

I can't respect someone's right to cause harm and suffering to another sentient being. Whether it's human or non-human animal, unecessary suffering is still unecessary suffering.

Respect Life, Go Vegan!

-- Sarah

Gyoza

2008-02-22T15:27:00.014+09:00

This recipe is super flexible, you can add what you like and change the amounts depending on your preference.

Ingredients:
480g tofu or 1 pack
1 carrot, diced
4-6 shiitake mushrooms, chopped
2 cups hakusai or a cabbage, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
salt and pepper
40-50 gyoza wrappers (check they are vegan)

Directions:
Press the tofu between two plates to get out any excess water.
Chop all the veggies, garlic, and ginger.
Crumble the pressed tofu into a large bowl.
Add all the ingredients and mix together, except salt, pepper and sesame oil.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Fill the gyoza wrappers with about a tablespoon or 2 of the mixture.
To seal them, wet the edges with water, then press them closed.

Then cook them in your favorite way!
- You can put them in the oven to bake for 10 minutes on each side (low fat!)
- Fry them in a bit of the sesame oil and water covered for 10 minutes or so (my preferred way)
- Steam them.

The finished product!

*disclaimer*I didn't measure exactly so change them if you want. You can really add any vegetables you like. You can also vary how you cut the veggies, chopped,shredded, etc.

380ｇ　豆腐　（一丁）

１本　にんじん、みじん切り

4－6枚　しいたけ、みじん切り

２カップ白菜、みじん切り

2－3かけ　にんにく、みじん切り

大さじ２　ショウガ、みじん切り

1/4カップ　青ねぎ、みじん切り

[A]

大さじ１　ゴマ油
大さじ１．５　醤油
大さじ１．５　酒

塩、こしょう、少々
40－50枚餃子の皮

１．豆腐の水けを切る。
２．野菜とにんにくとショウガを切る。
３．ボウルに豆腐入れてつぶす。
４． [３]のボウルの中に[２]の全部を入れてよくませる。
５． [A]の調味料を加えてよく混ぜる。
６．大さじ１ぐらいずつを皮で包む。
７．皮にあんをのせて端に水をつけ二つ折りにしてひだをつけながら包む。
８．フライパンを熱してゴマ油大さじ２をなじませ、ギョウザを並べる。ギョウザの高さの１/２くらいまで水を注ぎ、ふたをして蒸し焼きにする。
９．ポン酢をつけていただく。

-- Pamela

Inagural Post

2008-02-22T14:46:00.003+09:00

This blog was started to supplement the zine, 'Punk You' that Sarah and I are working on. This blog will include English translations of the Japanese zine, plus way more. Such as recipes, restaurant reviews, help for being vegan in Japan, stuff about music and politics. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but you get the idea. It's also just a fun outlet for us to post our food porn on.
Hope you enjoy our blog!

-- Pamela