A little review and a recipe..

As I'm sure we have mentioned in our previous posts, Cafe 8 and, it's sister restaurant, Pure Cafe, were some of our favorite places to eat in Tokyo. Although they share a lot of things, they are not identical and it is definitely worth it to check out both. Cafe 8 is located in quiet area of Aobadai and is within walking distance of Shibuya. Pure Cafe shares a building with Aveda in Aoyama near the Tokyo Metro Omotesando station. Dan and I found ourselves at both locations quite often. Since we loved the food so much we picked up two of their cookbooks. One is English and the other is in Japanese. We have translated one of the recipes from the Japanese book so far and hope to do more and post them up here.
The recipe that I'm going to post today is from the English recipe book.. and I think it's perfect for the season: Tofu Cream! It's great for eating on sweets sandwiches, bread pudding, pies, cakes.. pretty much any kind of dessert. It's also really quick and easy to make:

1 package drained firm silken tofu
4-5 tablespoons maple syrup
1-2 teaspoons rum
dash of vanilla extract
dash of salt

Blend the tofu until smooth in food processor. Blend in the maple syrup little by little. Blend rum, vanilla extract and salt. Add more maple syrup and rum if necessary.


It doesn't say anything about how to store or serve, but I've kept it chilled and I think it tastes great that way.. Enjoy!

Couchsurfing through Chiba

After we left Nikko, we headed back to Tokyo and stayed at New Koyo for a night in a "double" room. It really was just enough room for our bags and for us to sleep, but it worked (and it was cheap). But a tip for anyone else who plans to stay in the Minamisenju area, there are tons of other cheap hostels near New Koyo that are a bit harder to find online. One that I spotted around the corner from New Koyo was Hotel Accela, but unfortunately their site is only in Japanese.

The next day we departed for Chiba to couchsurf in Inage. Our host was great and let us stay for an entire week. She probably would have let us stay longer, but we didn't want to overstay our welcome. Almost the entire week we were in Inage it was pouring rain since there was a typhoon passing through. We spent a lot of the time cooking for ourselves and our host and her friends, which was really fun. During our stay she invited us to a charity potluck in Tsukuba. At the potluck we met lots of interesting people from all over the world that were studying at Tsukuba University. If you have the chance to go to there, I highly recommend checking it out. It is very different from Tokyo and almost reminds me of US suburbs. Our hosts told us that Tsukuba was planned and developed in the 1960s, which might be why it looks the way it does.

While we were in Inage the only places we ate out at were Mos Burger and a Thai restaurant called Siam House that was down the street from where we were staying. Siam House only had two vegan dishes: their famous soup and a stir-fried vegetable plate. The soup cost 1238yen, and it was worth every yen. If you are in Inage and in need of vegan food (or any food for that matter), I definitely recommend you check out Siam House and try the soup.

Tokyo Vegan Meetup Group

In Tokyo there is, like in many other large and small cities, a group on meetup.com for vegans. In my experience, these sorts of things can be very hit or miss, but we decided to check it out since we didn't know many people in Tokyo, or any vegans for that matter. This particular group has 1 or 2 meetings a month at the various vegan restaurants around Tokyo, plus a montly all-you-can-eat at the Pink Cow in Shibuya.

Our first experience we met some really nice people, but had some meh kind of food at Ohana Brown Rice Cafe. Unfortunately, nobody there we spoke to was vegan, mostly vegetarians and omnis, so we thought that was kind of weird. Fast forward another 2 weeks and we go to the Pink Cow for the monthly buffet, which was delicious although a bit expensive at Y2800/person. Again, we meet some really nice people but only vegetarians and omnis! It seems like this is one of the biggest and most active meetup groups, so I think alot of expats and Japanese alike just attend for that alone.

So another month goes by, and its time for another Pink Cow buffet. We sort of hemmed and hawed about whether or not we should go, but I decided we could since things have been working out pretty well lately with our finances. Success! We meet another vegan and he is almost as shocked as we are. We also met another guy who was interested in switching from omni to vegan, and hopefully we can get together and I can educate him on the process.

I think I learned that it is important not to be too judgmental about where people are on their path to veganism. Its true that we were both vegetarians not all that long ago. Although in some ways vegetarians can be a vegans worst nightmare, as vegans, it is our job to gently nudge them along the way. I wish someone had been there to give me that nudge, maybe it wouldn't have taken me nearly six years to figure it out! (thanks Vegan Freak from my local library).

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.

Restaurant Review: Pure Cafe

Pure Cafe has already become one of my favorite places in Tokyo. It is located between Shibuya and Harajuku just a block east from the corner of Aoyama-dori and Omotesando. It shares a building with Aveda, so it is pretty easy to find.

From what I can tell, it looks like their lunch menu offers a three sandwiches that change monthly. For August there is a fresh veggie sandwich, grilled veggie sandwich and a sweets sandwich. Dan and I have already tried all three. My favorite is definitely the Yomogi Sweets sandwich (I think I mentioned it in my previous entry). It's pretty much just bananas, tofu whip cream, raspberries and caramel sauce sandwiched between two pieces of french toast. I would recommend getting this for dessert, however, rather than lunch :)



In addition to sandwiches, they also have homemade muffins (flavors change daily) and an assortment of desserts (including things like cheesecake and fruit tarts). They also sell fresh loaves of bread. You can get a loaf of vegan rye bread for about $8. This evening I went there to pick up some bread and I discovered that they have a pretty delicious looking dinner menu. I will be sure go in the evening next time I go there to eat!

Usually when I visit, there is someone there who speaks English. Although, the first time I went to Pure Cafe, no one working knew any English.. so ordering was a little difficult. But not too hard, since the item names are in English and they have pictures you can point at.

This past week..

We have been up to a lot of different things.. I already had one job interview at an international kindergarten (unfortunately it didn't seem to go very well). It was a large group interview where the owner mostly just talked about her school. The only question she asked me was very well explained in my cover letter. Anyways~ I have another interview in Yokohama tomorrow, so hopefully that will go better.

Dan and I are planning on checking out some game centers tonight. We have been researching about UFO catchers since winning is not as obvious as it looks. Last time we were at one we tried winning a Rilakkuma towel that was in a rectangular box with no luck. So this time we are going to be prepared.

This past week we did a lot of stuff, and ate at a lot of delicious vegan restaurants.. I guess I will do a short day-by-day rundown.

Sunday 8/2
We checked out of the hostel and were picked up by Dan's friend Take and Take's mom. They drove us from Asakusa to Shinagawa (which ended up taking around about an hour). When we got to their house, Take's mom made a huge delicious vegan dinner. We even got to use their nice Japanese bath complete with hot sauna :)



Monday 8/3
Dan and I decided to go out and see Shinjuku. We stopped at a number of stores including DiscUnion, MaruiOne, Innocent World, Don Quixote, and MaruiCurren to name a few. It was really hot that day so we also checked out a few game centers we happened to walk by. When we got back home, we went with Take's family to a vegetable restaurant named めい　(Mei). Take's mom made sure to get us completely vegan food.. the main dish was shabu-shabu.



Tuesday 8/4
Dan stayed at home on Tuesday while I went out to Harajuku to meet up with Tokyo lolitas (as well as lolitas visiting Tokyo). I did PuriKura with them and sat around and chatted while they ate a little cafe on Omotesando. After that, I split up with them to go eat at a vegan cafe called Pure Cafe. I ordered a sandwich and dessert as the same time, which turned out to be kind of a mistake.. since I ordered the Yomogi Sweets Sandwich. The sandwich turned out to be more sweet than the peanutbutter cheesecake I got for dessert. They were both delicious though, just a little too much together. I decided to eat at Pure Cafe because it was right by Natural House. I had to stop there to buy some vital wheat gluten.. it was surprisingly easy to find. It was next to all the wheat flour and the package said グルテン (guruten) on it.

I returned home with the wheat gluten and Dan and I prepared dinner for everyone. We made chickpea cutlets (from the Veganomicon) and lentil soup. The ingredients for the chickpea cutlets were suprisingly easy to find, all though a bit expensive. We decided to try using another cheaper kind of bean next time we make the recipe.

Wednesday 8/5
We really wanted to eat at Deva Deva Cafe in Kichijoji, so we pretty much planned our day around it. The Vegan Japan Restaurant Pocketguide talks pretty highly about it and mentioned that they had vegan mayonnaise-potato-corn pizza.. so we just had to go see for ourselves. The cafe is very small, but cute and clean on the inside. The offer a range of vegan desserts that changes daily. Dan and I shared the "mayo pizza" and a "pork" cutlet burger.





They were both incredibly delicious. I couldn't decide which I like more. Afterward we ate a piece of their peach pie complete with vegan whipped cream on top. We found out later that Deva Deva Cafe offers a free dessert if you visit while it's raining!



After we ate we walked around and found Inokashira Park. It is a short walk from Kichijoji station and is home to the Ghibli Museum.



While we were walking around the park we were lucky enough to come across a guy that was getting ready to perform a comedy routine. It was in Japanese, but it was still really funny :)

So this is turning out to be a rather large entry.. I think I will let Dan finish up with the rest of the week on his next entry :)