Chana Masala

Indian chick pea curry and rice! Also made some more jalebi to make it a whole dinner!

Japanese Tofu Burgers

(Recipe coming soon)

This is a Japanese tofu burger (ganmodoki) which is vegan, and it is moist as well! It has tofu, oil, carrots, potatoes, burdock (a root), and Jews ear are the basic things in it. It was made for Buddhist vegan cuisine, although recipes I have seen online all contain egg =/

Ps-Jews ear is apparently an ear-shaped fungus. I had never heard of this and you can imagine my surprise when that came up on my electronic dictionary. I also thought burdock was a type of fish (I have no idea why), phew!

I love 'em! I hope I can find them back in the States (note: you can in some Asian grocery stores). My new thing is cutting them in half and having them as open face sandwiches.

Here it is displayed with sautéed onions and mushrooms, BBQ sauce and lettuce on lightly toasted bread. wow seriously.

MeatyBalls

Made with Gimme Lean sausage-style (didn't have beef style) bread crumbs and spices (Italian seasonings), then baked.

MizuYokan

These are sweets from Japan called mizu-yokan. They are made from sweet beans, but agar agar is used to give it a slightly jiggly gelatin texture. Most are just reddish, these a fancy pants ones!
The one on the left is coffee flavored, and the other one just tasted like sweet beans. I only bought it because it was cute.

Beer battered mushrooms

Beer battered mushrooms the size of your fist.



I love the west.

This can be achieved with any batter or even tempura mix and deep fried.

Sweet and Sour TVP Pork

First, you will need some chunky TVP (texturized vegetable protein)


I altered this recipe from http://www.jewish-food.org/recipes/tvpswees.htm


Yield: 4 servings

* 1 cup TVP chunks
* 1 tablespoon ketchup
* 1 3/4 cups hot water
* 1 cup carrots - (1 large carrot), sliced
* 1 green pepper, large chop
* 1 cup water
* 20 ounces pineapple chunks, canned in juice
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1/4 cup cider vinegar
* 2 tablespoons cornstarch
* 1/4 cup tamari (or soy sauce)

Combine first three. Simmer in a covered pan until tender, but not mushy. (20-30 minutes) I add a little soy sauce and more sugar in with the TVP when boiling, gives it more flavor.

Bring 1 cup water to a boil and add carrots and green pepper.

Cover, return to boil and cook for 2 minutes to crisp-tender. Remove from heat, drain, reserving liquid. Return liquid to pan and add juice from pineapple. Bring the liquid to a boil, adding sugar and vinegar.

In a small bowl, combine rest.

Stir the cornstarch mixture into the hot liquid, the sauce will thicken and come to a boil almost at once.

After I drain the extra liquid from boiling the TVP, I pan fry the TVP to give it a crispier outside.
SAVE the leftover broth and add it to the veggie/pineapple broth.

Add the cooked TVP, the carrots and green peppers and pineapple to the sauce. Serve on rice or crisp chow mein noodles. This can be made ahead and reheated later and then served on rice or noodles.




Other ways you can make it:

This baby was non-traditional and included cleaning out the fridge:
Onions
Green peppers
Eggplant
Broccoli
Scallions
Avocado!



Even the omni-monkey honestly declared that it was better than the veggie sweet and sour pork at the fancy restaurant in Hong Kong. Wow!

Brown Rice Cafe in Tokyo

While I didn't go to the cafe (because the wait was too long and I was starving), I went to their deli right beside it.
It was amazing. It's macrobiotic, although most of it is vegan. They know all their farmers and get food fresh.
I will be coming back here every time I'm in Tokyo.

Veggie burger.
The miso sauce really made this the best damn veggie burger I've ever had. Fo' real.



A sloppy-joe type rice mixture in a fried tofu skin pouch with grilled veggies.
Good, but I would have chosen the Mexican style one they had over this.




Mini fruit and walnut tortes and mini tofu (cheesecake) torte.
Cheesecake still tasted a bit beany with lemon. Not complaining though. The fruit and walnut glazed torte had a brown rice crust and was AMAZING.




Brown Rice Cafe, A++++++ Will do business with again!!!!!!1

Map.
Take the Tokyo Metro (subway) to station Omotesando (by Harajuku). Go to exit A1. Hitch a left at the intersection in front of you. It's on your right after about a 30 second walk.

Gnocchi

Just with some marinara sauce and some Mozzeralla Sheese. At first Mozzarella tastes like mozzarella, then it kinda tastes like glue. But it's growing on me in small amounts mixed with other things.



Pronounced: "Nyoh-khi"