TVP Rendang

I soaked some TVP in warm water with a dash of soy sauce for about 20 minutes.
I stir fried them with peppers and onions and padang (a spicy peanut) sauce until it cooked down. Viola!

I used to be really scared of peanut sauce and veggies. It just seemed wrong. But, I'm expanding my palate and as long as it is vegan I will eat it*!

*Except cucumbers because I'm allergic to them. And olives because they taste like butt.

Brussels Bites

So I had a remark that there is not enough "how-to" any more here. I guess I agree, so here we go! A completely original recipe.

Did you know it's Brussels sprouts, not Brussel sprouts? The more you know!

Brussels Bites
I know it's not a very good name, but suck it.

How to clean & cook Brussels Sprouts:
Rinse them well. Peel off the outside layer of leaves and chop off the stem. Make an X with your knife in the bottom of the stem (to cook better). Steam for about 5 minutes (until they are bright green). But for this recipe, maybe only 3 minutes.

Pan fry some Tofurky Beer Brat medallions with oil and garlic, and toss in the Brussels sprouts with it for a few more minutes.

Next, get some pre-made croissant dough. Depending on how many sprouts you have, you may have to put the precut pieces back together and then re-cut out how many pieces of dough you need.

Place one medallion and sprout in the croissant square. Then wrap the dough around the two, slightly patting it into a ball, trying to get the air out. Repeat with the rest. Try and work quickly if possible. Bake by the croissant directions (about 10 minutes until golden brown). Enjoy!

I also made standard mashed potatoes as a side, along with portobella and onion gravy. I've become awesome at making gravy from scratch. It involves browned flour, oil for the fat, water and soy sauce. Usually though in some mushrooms at the end.
Here is a good basic gravy recipe until you can get a handle on it yourself. Seriously, cooking it in that order is the key to good gravy.

Bibimbap

My first real taste of Korean food, from a Korean restaurant.
I had Bibimbap, minus egg and meat.
It comes out super hot, and you have to stir all the stuff around in the bowl before the rice sticks to the sides. So the rice gets kinda crunchy and good with all this other stuff mixed in. Good, but not amazing.

Kim-chi still may be one of the most disgusting things on earth.

Chocolicious bites

Somewhere between brownie and cake, with melted chocolate and a walnut!
It was as delicious as it looks.

Japanese food

Two seasonal autumn packages.



Tofu salad.


Cold grilled eggplant sushi with ginger on top.

THE lasagna

From top to bottom: topless, top on, sliced

Make it yourself, there is no going back!
Sometimes I will even just make the cheez to use on other things it's so amazing. I usually up the 'butter', 'mayo' and nutritional yeast. It just makes it tastier!! Silken tofu does work best texture-wise, but regular style is just as delicious.

First Class Food

My last flight I treated myself to first class. The two dishes during the 12 hour flight included a nice selection of fresh-ish cold (bland) veggies and hot (bland) veggies, fruit, a small side of rice and a piece of bread, with a snack of mixed nuts. I was left pining for more carbs and starving when we landed. While first class has a nice food tray for anyone to go get something from, my only selection was an under-ripe banana that I passed on. Dinner was just as pathetic so I didn't even bother to take a picture.

Sad to think my economy meals had more flavor and left me stuffed.
So NorthWest Airways, if you are reading this, please don't take the term "rabbit food" so literal next time please. And FYI, butter is not vegan.

Mushroom ravioli and polenta bites

Ok, It's not really ravioli, although that's what Vegetarian Times called it (similar recipe, skip the cheese and add garlic and rosemary). All you need is gyoza/wonton wrappers (most are NOT vegan so read carefully. Asian food stores are your best bet over supermarket brands). Lightly pan fry! No sauce needed with 'butter', garlic and onions!
Also made cute polenta bites, which I made using small cookie cutters. Sauce is pure tomato sauce mixed with artichoke hearts (until creamy) and a dash of nutmeg. Num!

Breakfast Buddies Pot luck

I have given these guys their official name, Breakfast Buddies! Let the "mc" rule your language no more! I made mini Breakfast Buddies with Gimme Lean sausage for a potluck. They were a big hit and that makes me very happy! My recipe is super easy. Try them with any of your fav fixin's!

Old Country Food, Take me home

Garlic Brussels spouts, polenta and Tofurky Beer Brats with onions.

Vegan Japan

I'll (try to) spare the talk and get on with the pretty pictures!


Mr. Young Men
Kyoto (Teramachi & Shijo)
Okonomiyaki


Tofu Okonomiyaki
(shown with miso soup with fried tofu)

Osaka is the famous place to get this cuisine, but Mr Young Men is accomidating and has a ton of options. Just ask for no eggs, mayo, or katsuo-bushi (fish flakes).


Cafe Peace
Kyoto (Demachiyanagi)
International vegan


Brown rice, tvp chikn in a tomato sauce, fries, potato salad, hijiki salad, cabbage and veggie salad, pear jelly dessert.



Kareage- fried chikn in a crispy potato basket with tortilla chips and sweet tomato sauce.

Not pictured: Soy Mince & Chive Chijimi (korean 'pancake') and almond and chocolate poundcake for dessert. The almond poundcake was one of the best things I've eaten in a long time.


Nara National Museum cafe
Nara
Chinese style cafe



Chewy sweet and sour tvp on a bed of greens and chinese buns to pick it all up with!

Maman Terrace
Osaka (Shinsaibashi)
Macrobiotic

Way over priced. I got a nice plate of food and my mom got almost nothing for the same price. Good, but not recommended.



Breaded chickpea drum sticks with bamboo. Also a side of aglio e olio.




Pumpkin cake with an orange glaze with crunchy pumpkin pellets and puffed rice to the side. Also a soy cappucchino.

Brown Rice Cafe & Deli
Tokyo (OmoteSando/Aoyama)
Macrobiotic

I've never been in the actual cafe, I love the deli too much. It's my favorite place!
I got my usual veggie burger and a brown rice ratatoulle pocket (past post). And for dessert?



Chocolate Tofu Torte. MMMMMMM It was like mousse!


Der Akkord
Tokyo (Omotesando/Aoyama)
German, Vegan, Macrobiotic bakery

Right down the road from Brown Rice, this bakery gives out samples and has a great array of baked goods for us vegans!



I had an apple jam pie, coconut banana cake, and curry bread (curried veggies and rice baked inside pastry).


Pure Cafe
Tokyo (Aoyama/Omotesando)
Vegan Cafe

Pure Cafe, better known for its (now defunct store front) sister store Cafe Eight, is located in an Aveda. Sadly its website is lacking photos of this wonderfully place and its food. They have a small ever changing menu, as well as breakfast!



Vegetable Torte. Sauteed veggies on a lovely crust covered in a nutrtional yeast and tofu cheez sauce. MM!



Tiramisu. The end.

Fish and Chips

Made VGML's Fish and Chips for my British omni monkey and my mom. Success!

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"