Daily Eatins

I thought I'd do a quick post on what we have been eating every day, as a guideline to other vegans on what exactly there is to eat here. There's a pretty wide variety of food, and my cooking skills are improving every day by working with the local ingredients. Most of the dishes are simple 1 and 2 pot meals, and Japanese are pretty big on side dishes it seems, so feel free to mix and match.

• Vegan Ramen - sesame oil + garlic + ginger, then add water, boil, add a bit of instant konbu dashi and some soy sauce, and add udon + tofu + whatever. Top with some bean sprouts.


• Inari Sushi - these cute little football looking things make up a good portion of our breakfasts. They are just sushi rice with some yuba wrapped around them. Our local suupa, Sameto, has them half off if they have any left after 11pm, so we often get 10 of em for $2!


• Pancakes - Japanese people seem to dig pancakes, there is a big section at the store next to the "homemade cake" stuff. Unfortunately, many contain dairy products, but who uses a mix anyway. Maple syrup is expensive, but it is expensive anywhere.


• Chickpea Cutlets - Vital wheat gluten (guruten @ Natural House) + chickpeas (a bit expensive here, so bring your own dried ones or have em shipped). Recipe is in the Veganomicon.


• Yakisoba - get some noodles from the suupa, fry em up with some veggies (Japanese eggplant are good and super cheap, with onion, carrot, whatever), add some Kagome brand veg. sauce and maybe some vegan mayo that I bought at Loving Hut :O.


• Japanese Curry & Rice - this is a scary one. Right when we got here we made some curry and it had pork in it :(. I figured the same box would have the same ingredients as it does when I get it at the asian markets in the US, but nope. Anyway, many natural food places carry a veggie curry roux mix that you can use. Add pickled ginger and you are in heaven.


• Spaghetti Neapolitan - see post below


• Mos Burger - fast food joint that uses veg oil for frying potatoes, and has a vegan rice patty burger with stir-fried carrots, burdock, lotus root, etc inside. (kinpira burger) Pretty good :)

Maybe I will have Laura do a part II on this soon, since she has her own things she makes as well! Fear not vegans, there is lots of delicious food out there, even in Japan.