Spicy Leafies and Country Roads

Ayiyiyi, It's been forever. I do declare, when I am finally home in Amurrrica in one month I will step it up with the posting. Since I will have access to a kitchen. Fina-fluffing-LY.

My eleven month long program here in Japan is nearing it's end. It is sad, and hard to fathom, but I am ready to be home. Quite frankly, I am starting to feel the years, and--forgive me for getting Sirius Black here--by the years I mean the sigh-able things that come with feeling like an outsider in Japanese society. It's a hard one to knock, indeed. I need a change of environment and to be with my family, my friends from home, my friends at school.

There are so many things I do love about the mighty Nippon, and its people, food, quirks, aesthetic, and culture. I have made wonderful friends this year that I will miss dearly. I've seen and gone to neat places that I will think about for months after I get home. This last month is just the right amount of time to enjoy as much as I possibly can, and say sayonara.

One thing I will certainly miss is takana, a peppery salty leafy sort of marinated pickle. The stuff is groovy flavored, and I must have eaten a gazillion takana filled onigiri during my time here.

I recently discovered this series of curious instructional cooking videos on YouTube, called "cookingwithdog".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O9kWD8nuRU
...

But hey, this looks very oishii, and there are videos for so many Japanese dishes it's almost overwhelming. Keep on keeping on, Francis the dog.

Oishii and Rare Specimen of No-Meat Tofu Burger in Japan

I had my eyes on this burger place in Shinjuku for months, so when my friend K.S. was visiting me here a month or so ago, I suggested we take a look at the menu. HELL-FLUFFING-YEAH-- they had a vegetarian veggie burger. Often tofu burgers I come across here contain some sort of meat or seafood. This patty was flesh-free. It's basically tofu ground with different veggies and then buried in a mountain of other veggies in between a bun, and it was perfect. The renkon chips were interesting, too. The name of the restaurant escapes my mind at the moment? I shalt get back to you.


Of luscious avocado I am an advocate.

Nom nom

One night while I was home I was in an XTREEM mood for something dumpling-y, and I remembered seeing these delicous, plump gems that Vegan Dad made and posted about. I especially admire Vegan Dad for his ability to create original and satisfying protein sources, and was super intrigued that he uses pulsed chickpeas as the dumpling filling.


My frumpy versions, pre-steamer
And so the game went afoot. An hour, a million minutes, and a chickpea mash and flour covered kitchen counter later, I had created my own lumpy versions of Vegan Dad's perfect-looking gyouza. I opted to steam them, keeping a watchful eye to determine when I should take them off heat. I made a dipping sauce of soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, a few drops of toasted sesame oil, and chili flakes. My finished products were indeed sort of lumpy and awkward looking, but really flavorful and I loved the texture. The chickpeas were AWESOME. Kudos, Vegan Dad, kudos to the nth degree.

Globby yet delicious

Strangely Chicken-tasting Seitan

Here is a simple miso-inspired "itame ni", (eetahmeh nee) or simmered stir fry I concocted using home made seitan, carrots, and string beans. The flavor turned out to be a successful ying-yang of sweet and salty, and it was yummy.

Rather then measure or use a recipe for the above dish, I just threw in random ingredients that I thought might work, and tasted as I went along. Therefore I don't really have an exact recipe, but as a flavor base I used miso paste, mirin, soy sauce, grated ginger and ground white sesame seeds.

As for le seitannnnnnn:

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
1/2 almond milk
1/3 (ish?) ground raw unsalted cashews. (I used a food processor)

Seitan vat of flavor:

1 bay leaf
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1tbsp soy sauce (or so, to your liking)
1 clove crushed garlic
small/medium sized pot of boiling water

• Combine seitan dough ingredients in small to medium bowl
• Let sit for five minutes, then knead until smooth and stretchy and gluten-y (5-10 minutes)
  
• Cut dough into pieces of desired size and shape.
• Prepare "vat of flavor" and turn on low medium heat
• Boil seitan in broth for 45 minutes, (I tend to just eyeball, but this is always the approx. time) until the pieces have expanded in size and are firm

And behold. If all goes smoothly, you will have savory and bizzarely chicken-y seitan that you can dine on in whatever fashion you like! This time, I threw them in a pan with olive oil to brown for the miso simmer-stir fry, but I also like to bake them in the oven for extra flavor and texture.

In fact, when the seitan pieces were boiling on the stove, my sister stuck her in noise in the kitchen and asked whether I was making chicken. And I said I was not. Muhahahahahah.

Vegan Pizza of Valour

I made 'za a couple times when I was home. This one, I thought, was especially yum.
I used the pizza crust recipe from my mom's tattered and flour encrusted Sunset cook book, "Breads". It turned out well, or at least like how I like crust; crisp on the outside yet fluffy on the inside. Oh! And I threw in oat bran and wheat germ for some fibrous measure.

As for les toppings:

• carmelized red onions
• chopped red bell pepper
• a mountainous mountain of torn baby spinach leaves
• satisfyingly creamy/crumbly vegan tofu ricotta from PPK.
• crushed garlic, salt and pepper, olive oil drizzlies

I had wanted to step outside of the box and explore the realm of non tomato sauce-based pizzas, and I digged this. I dug it well.



On a plate with some strawbs. Hangin' out, raw and oven-ready

Back, Like the Dinosaurs Aren't.

It has been many, many moons since I've been on here! In my absence I returned to the (sort of) motherland Pennsylvania for a month, where family and friends and almond butter were plentiful. It was really nice to be home for a bit, I needed it I think.

A day or so after I got back to Japan, my lovely friend ginger friend K.S. arrived to visit from Hawaii, and together we took the Kanto region by storm. Her stay was roughly two weeks. We encountered Showa era scented trains, cherry blossoms and cherry blossom flavored everything, Japanese Elvis impersonators, a thousand and one satisfying triangles of rice, futuristic dystopias by water, and amusing clocks, and much more. I was really glad I got to experience her first time in Japan with her.

This was all very wunderbar.

However I will tend to the happy fluffy details later; I finally have some cooking shots I can babble about!

Many of my days at home were spent sort of stuck in the house, pitter-pattering about my kitchen, so I concocted and experimented and went a bit ingredients happy. Some of my projects turned out scrumptious, some turned out monstrous, and some turned just kind of neutral. Whatevs yo, I was just happy to be back in the kitch.

I think I will do the cooking posts individually. So. Be warned, dear readers.

Cupid is a Silly Being.

Using my incisors to tear into a yummy hummus, kabocha, lettuce, and grilled carrots and onion sandwich by myself in Yoyogi park.

ハッピーバースデー

Cooked tomatoes. While I celebrate the pressure from the juicy, tart, and acidic burst that my tongue and cheek insides feel when I bite into a raw tomato, I have trouble feeling as excited about them when they are hot and mushy. Don't get me wrong, I am a large fan of chunks of tomato in sauces, curries, etc, but you know when they're like, whole, served as an accompaniment off a grill or something? I just feel don't feel the magic. Oh well. Maybe some day I will learn to appreciate.

Today I am 21. I feel it in my fingers, and even in my toes! Kind of. Well I feel a sort of fluttery excitement, despite the fact that I am sitting on my bed alone in a messy dorm room, yet unsure of exactly what today's celebration plans are going to be. There is a mini bottle of cabernet sauvignon on my desk, a gift from a Christmas Secret Santa exchange that I have only first sipped from an hour ago. Waiting for the right moment, you see.

It is my birthday and I feel butterflies inside. Moths are surprisingly terrifying creatures. While I cannot say my last few weeks since school let out for spring break have been um, productive, I have been lucky enough to run into delightful, intriguing things and people. I'm going home to PA for a few weeks on Sunday, which comes at perfect timing I think. I have a new favorite Japanese word; "fua fua" （フワフワ）. It's an onomatopoeia that is used to describe fluffy, airy things like pillows or marshmallows.

I feel content and settled, finally, after what was sort of a mentally draining autumn season. I miss the crunchy red potato chip leaves. I also like cherry blossoms, or sakura though, and cannot believe they will be here soon. Spring Tiiiimmee for Hitlahhh in Germanyyyy.

Of course, being mid February, it's still chilly. To keep warm when I walk home from the train station, I eat warm things and stick カイロ (kairo, self-heating patches) down my shirt and on my back.

I hope to go to an all-vegan restaurant in Omotesando called 'Cafe Pure' this evening with a friend, and this makes me giddy!

Seaweedin'

I'm addicted to convenience store konbu onigiri (rice balls with a sweet-salty konbu seaweed filling wrapped in crisp nori) once again.

I've had a few weeks of off time since the fateful day that my onigiri fell apart, somehow leading me to inhale the ENTIRE glob of konbu at once. Traumatically salty! Consequentially that did turn me off a bit, but now I am back and hitting them hard.

To be honest, the convenience store ones are really not that good for you at all; they often contain some weird food dyes and chemicals that I just try not to think about while eating them. On the other hand, they are vegan, a quick hunger fix, and super cheap (100 yen=90 cents?), so I dabble in them a considerate amount.

Department stores in Japan often have a basement floor where you can find groceries, as well as Japanese and Western dishes, and when I have time I like to venture down there get fresh konbu onigiri. These are worlds better and phenomenal when warm! Yummy. When I eat them I kind of want to wrap myself in slippery konbu and slide around on hot rice.

YESSS!

SUTAABAAKUSU MONSUTAA

A monster though Starbucks may be, I do like this fun feature that the ones here in Japan have! Or rather, I think it's funny. When ordering a beverage with soy milk, you're given this cardboard card (redundancy?) that you present to the barista person when you pick up your drink, so as not to accidentally receive something dairy.
I am drinking things with cow juice again here in Japan, switching to soy when I feel like it, but this is a neat reassure-er for vegans or those who have allergies. Maybe the ones in the US have adopted this since I left in August?
Actually, it seems kind of silly; I can't imagine the order mix-up happens too often. Anyhow, Japanese culture is a cautious and ginger one, so these soy-cards are endearing.

Smiley Apple

I got these indoor sock slippers recently. They keep my feet warm and amused! Unfortunately they have the rubber stopper pad things on the soles that stop me from being able to slide around my dorm room floor, but alas, I endure.

BEARCAT?

A Sunday Amongst Sundays in Early December

My Sunday consisted of running around Tokyo, some lone samurai Christmas cheer, and interesting new folks. I volunteered to be a stage crew member for a Tokyo International Player's production of Shweyk in the Second World War later this week, and I was invited to a rehearsal to sort of get a clue on what was going on. The cast was rehearsing in this dark, intimate, and coffee scented little room called "Our Space" that TIP rents out separately for practices.

As I sat watching in one of the low, mismatched chairs in the corner, wiggling my stocking'd toes and trying to make mental notes, I realized how bizarre it felt to be in a room where the only language spoken was English. Since there are only a few international exchange students at my university here, being in the company of almost exclusively Brits and Americans felt other-worldly! Despite the surrealism, it was comforting. The mood in the room was of familiar and nostalgic, and I felt excited to sort of become a part of it.

Later in the evening I met up with friend of mine who had graduated from HPU last year--and is now working here--and a handful of her co-workers. We were to meet at Hard Rock Cafe, which came with a weird surprise. I am now so used to entering restaurants with my Japanese switch attempted on, so when I started to explain to the host that my friends were already there and was answered with an "Oh I think they're over there, go right in" in flawless American English, I blinked and took a second to register.

The evening ended, as most everyone's evenings do, in a salsa club on the top floor of a tall and mysterious building. I thought, awesome, I don't know how to actually salsa but I do love to dance, so I can dig it. Um, it turned out that I was COMPLETELY out of my element, as everyone in the small but cozy club was around twice my age and intensely knowledgeable in the ways of the salsa.

Middle aged Japanese couples, who must take advanced lessons together or something, were abundant and full of fahyaa. They twisted and twirled and kicked, and the Cuban bartenders hollered and joked with each other in Spanish. I felt like I was in a movie. Since most of the people were in their forties/fifties and really knew how to salsa, I must say I felt pretty awkables. I lingered by the bar with my friend and one of her coworkers, gnawing at the pineapple chunk from the edge of a dericous strawberry margarita, jerking my shoulders around to the music and trying to make appropriate facial expressions. I think I would have felt much less out of place if everyone was not 40, but it was still really fun to take it all in. Overall, a saucy treat for the senses.

ANYWAY, on this last fine Sunday I also tried to take a good amount of photos of my surroundings, and the collection turned out looking like some kind of time machine. I took pictures as I walked to the train station in the morning, through my boondocky but pleasant little town, and then some more once I got to Shinjuku, one of Tokyo's busiest metropolitan areas.

My nose is cold to the touch and kabocha tempura is wildly yum.

Herro darlings.

I have a flaming crush on this band here called EGO-WRAPPIN'. I have to admit I don't know too much about Japanese tuneage of the here and now.
J-Pop is not my cup of o-chya. Japan does, however, have its more hidden gems, and I am very happy to have stumbled upon these crazy cats:






Aren't they good and plenty? It looks like they perform often at different music festivals, etc, in Tokyo, and I am definitely going to try to get my leafy stems on some tix. Mix. Chex mix. EGO WRAPPIN'!

Do you feel Christmasy yet? I've been wearing a lot of red and green lately, kind of not on purpose.

DO YOU WANT SUMMUH HUMMUS?

Alas, I have none. However, in that question I do have an awkward palindrome that is up for grabs. It came to me while I was in the shower. I'll tell you what isn't, and didn't:

Feast upon with your eyes! Can you figure it out? This edgy polygon is called the Sator Square, and it contains within a mind boggling Latin palindrome--Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas. It's like, palindromic in every way possible. Even if you take the first letter of each word, and then the second letter of each word, and so on, it will not disappoint. Absolutely crayfish, yeah? The interweb deities say it could mean "The sower Arepo holds the wheels with effort". Humans are wondrous, wondrous beings. We're such a dog!

Honestly, this kind of stuff makes my head explode with awe. Somehow it's mostly when I'm in the shower that I think about these things. Maybe it's the suds, maybe its the steam, maybe its the warm water in my eyes, temporarily blinding me, maybe it's the nakey, but more so than not I'm standing there like, "how the fluff did people figure out and organize TIME?" Or counting systems, or complex languages, or that you need to soak beans for like a million hours and then apply heat before they are digestible? I wish I was there with the first person (primate?) that discovered coconuts had an edible interior. The pyramids in Egypt exist, and that shiz is crazaay.

I've always thought things taste better in Japan, whether it be oreos (vegan! and they totally do), Japanese food, apple juice...
Cucumbers are definitely rolling with the in-crowd on that one; Japanese cucumbers are skinnier and therefore crisper and somehow more flavor concentrated than ones I've encountered in the West.
BAH that's what she said.

I recently bought two cucumbers and here is one of them:
Um, forgive the ambiguity of this photo. Crunch.

I'm absolutely in love with Japanese pumpkin, kabocha. It is sweet and velvety and beta-carotene abundant and I could bathe in it. It's autumn, and they are in season, yay! You can eat the skin, which is a pretty forest green color. There's a farm in Maryland that grows and delivers them to a Japanese market in Narberth, PA (Maido), and supermarkets in Hawai'i often have them, so I can get my paws on it when I'm home. A popular cooking method--and my favorite-- is to cut it in slightly larger than bite sized chunks and simmer it in soy sauce and sweet rice wine. I like to add a little grated ginjyaaa. It's also yummy just steamed and as is. Here, in its motherland, I have no kitchen, but there are two microwaves on the first floor of my dorm building. And I am a man with a plan. I bought some thin slices of its goodness:

I figure with some water and my steaming-veggies-in-microwave-friendly tupperware I can make it happn', capn'. Stay tuned, and sexy.

Konyaku Dreams

I am wearing both plaid pajama shorts and plaid socks right now. Overwhelming? Maybe. But I feel like a rebel, and so in this way I will remain.

Have you ever had konyaku? In English it's called "devil's tongue". Unfortunately its not so naughty-naughty as that makes it sound, it's basically this clear-grey-spotted jelly like substance that is packaged usually in the form of noodles or a thick cake. It's made from a sort of potato-like plant indigenous to Indonesia, or something? All I know is, it's good stuff. Weird as fluff, but good. It doesn't really have a taste, its just kind of refreshing and has this peculiar yet pleasant gelatinous-rubber bite. It also is supposed to have magical wonder super health food powers, which I guess can do no wrong, amirite!? Making its welcome appearance in many hot Japanese simmered dishes, konyaku is a common and cruelty-free ingredient.

Anyvazzz, the other day I went with some classmates to an izakaya, or traditional Japanese bar (they're great because they tend to offer a variety of unique veggie dishes), and a friend ordered dengaku konyaku on sticks. Dengaku is a sultry sweet miso sauce. And this combination was delightful. They were really yummy. Shy not away from its undeniable weirdness! For some reason, its color and rubbery earthyness combined with the sweet-salty miso made me feel like I was some sort of Japanese seaweed-haired swamp nymph munching eagerly on my findings. I wouldn't mind feeling like that again.
.
Konyaku kontakt.

Come to think of it, it has the perfect texture to cut out fun jiggly shapes with cookie cutters for absolutely no reason. I made BBQ tofu "hearts" this summer, and let me tell you, it was quite a strange and satisfying thrill. Darnit! If only I could now justify acquiring a big slab of konyaku and a cookie cutter in the shape of a cat or gingerbread man, or something. I'm SO doing this when I have a kitchen again. While I make note of this, please feast your eyes on some tangy but visually blurry eggplant pickles and some strange bedfellows/friendly classmates:

Eggplant, Hana, Hide, more konyaku, funny guy whose name I don't remember, and myself with shiso leaf.


Moving along!
I'd like to once more congratulate America and Barack Obama on our wonderful, wonderful decision. I believe it's a very positive moment for Americans, and we should all be reveling in a happy fuzzy unity. And of course this means everybody, all parties. It's sad, to say the least, when people express their bitterness or discontent or even anger with Obama. I don't mean to pick bones, but please, let's just love. As Palin said herself, there is no time or need for negativity. Let's love, we're in this together.


Sheriff Obama says: "There's more than enough room for the two of us in this here county."