One day as a vegan

Hello, here is a hungry Nana! :D
Today, I experienced a day as a vegan! It was challenging for me because I can not eat egg, cheese and milk for 24 hours! OMG...
I will write about my whole day as a vegan here.

9:30 wake up
Today I did not have any class exept 5th Koma so I woke up late. ;D hehe (Usually I wake up at 6:00.)

10:00 brunch

Today's first mission was emerged... First, I tried to eat bread as usual because it is using wheat and I thought, Oh, I can eat bread! ;D haha It's easy♪ Then I checked the ingredients list. I was struck by lightning. Oh, no no no... This is including egg. I can not eat this... mmm... Then I pondered what I can eat today. After all, I made a Udon with Japanese green onion. I really wanted to use the Japanese sauce which dip Udon, or "Mentsuyu", but it contains bonito so instead of it, I made special Udon sauce with Soysauce and Sugar and water.

14:00

Before I leave my home, I ate an Orange for my little snack.

16:30

I ate fruits cup at my university and took a class.

20:00

I got back to my home. My family knew I am challenging to be a vegan so bought me a boiled corn. ;D It was very sweet and tasty!

I ate rice and simmered and seasoned potatoes and vegetables for my dish. ;) It was very delicious. I wanted to eat pickled plum, but I could not again because it was containing Honey. Ohhhhhhhh... What a stressfull!!!! haha

Through a day as a vegan, I realized how I am free. Usually I am not conscious about my food habit, but I found I am very relying on Eggs and food which include animal products. It is very difficult to find food out of my house. I can cook at my home, but in outside there is no choice, but salad. Even the salad and the seasoning sometimes includes meat such as chicken and bacon. I was really tired of checking ingredients on the backside of package. In addition, there are large amount of temptation by smell of meat like KFC, the Golden arches... sigh

Looking back the whole day, I was always thinking about food. It was like sickness! haha

This is because I all of a sudden changed my lifestyle up side down, but it is natural! I cannot live without meat and animal products because I grew up in non-vegetable society. I neither have exact faith and reason to be a vegan. It depends to be a vegetarian and it might be good thing, but I found that there should be a clear reason and environment for being a vegetarian, especially vegan.

Oh, I may dream I am eating meat tonight... What a carnivorous I am...

What is this?

Gooooood morning! :D It'll be hot today... :( It's humid and lots of homeworks... My passion toward study sometimes fall like rain, but cheer up! only 1 or 2 months left! ;D

Anyway, today I'd like to introduce you a unique dish. It is "Japanese Potato Cake" Yeah-----!!! haha
Actually this is like "gnocchi", or "Nyokki" in Japanese. However, I tried to cook it with Japanese way so "Japanese style gnocchi!"

Ingredients: (Serves 1 or 2)
*2 Potatoes (I chose May queen this time.)
*Potato starch, or Katakuriko (Usually gnocchi contains cheese, but I used potato starch instead of cheese.)
*A sauce in which to dip soba/ Mentsuyu
*Sugar
*Sweet sake for seasoning

How to cook?
First of all, pare potatoes and cut them into small pieces so that it is more easy to mash.
Secondly, put cut potatoes into Silicon steamer and nuke it for 4 minutes.

After that, mash those potatoes! This is my favorite part! :D

When you mashed potatoes enough, add a tablespoonful of Potato Starch and let's start handicraft!!!!!!! Wash your hands and knead dough. (Please please please wash your hand before you start kneading in order to avoid food poisoning such as O-157.)

Then, pluck a bit of the kneaded potato and make a small oval, or like a red blood corpuscle like the picture below. :)

These are the seasonings. From left side, Sugar, Japanese sause which dip soba and sweet sake.

Ok--! We have now come to the most exciting part of the cooking!!!! Let's saute and simmer them with a pan. ;D

Put a teaspoonful of oil (I chose sesame oil to stimulate the appetite! ) and saute them.

Browned the oval potatoes and put all seasonings. (Sweet Sake, Sugar and sauce. If you like sweet one, you can put 2 or 3 teaspoonfuls of sugar. ;) *When you put some seasonings, be careful!!!! Please make the heat weak not to burn. Sugar is easily burned black! :(

Simmer them for a while and HAPPY-------------! Dish up the potatoes and let's EAT!

This is my cooking show for today. :D

Thank you for reading the recipe and try it when you have time. If you have any question about the recipe or me? haha Please leave a comment here.

Thank you! ;D

Welcome to Arabic Restaurant.

Hello-----! Today, I'd love to introduce a middle east restaurant in Tokyo.
The restaurant's name is ZAKURO. It's in Nippori near Dan-Dan stairs. Here is the map.

大きな地図で見る
A man who is from middle east is running this resutaurant. In the restaurant, there is no desk and chair. Everybody eat supper sitting on the floor. It seemed like real middle east style! :D Also there are many kinds of drawings and picutures and hip scarves of bellydance! I was really excited because I belong to bellydance club in the university. :) I love middle east culture especially the dance. Well, take a look of the pictures at the resutaurant!

This is the interior of the restaurant. When you enter the restaurant, you have to take your shoes off. :D

Here is the drawings. They are traditional arts. In the middle of the picuture, there is a stick. Can you see? between the drawings. On the stick, Arabic was written. It was very nice design.

When I visited the restaurant, it was very hot like summer and the owner turned on an electric fan. Then I heard wonderful sounds... Can you guess what it was? I hear this sound very often while I practice bellydancing. In front of the fan, a hip scarf was decorated and it was blowing softly because of the breeze. Here is the picture of a hip scarf. This is mine and there are some kinds of hip scarves, but this black one is my favorite. :D haha

Let's get back to the restaurant information. ;) It was before the noon so I ate lunch there. I ate lunch set called "just hungry course",or "Futsu-ni onaka suita course". The courses had interesting name such as "Starving course" and "bit hungry course". You can choose main dish from lamb, chicken, vegetables or beans. I chose chiken. :D As we learned at a class, they do not use pork to eat and there is a small column about "Halal" on their web-page.

Here is the dish I ate. ;D It was delicious! I was worry about the tast if it were too spicy or unique, but my anxious was nonsense. The taste was really mild and very very very nice and the chicken was so tender.

At the restaurant, they sometimes have bellydance performance. If you are interested in, check the web site. I will put the address here later. After all, it cost 600 yen. Only 600 yen, but they

serve enough amount of dish! I do recommend you to visit the restaurant. The owner is very nice, unique, passionate and funny man around 50. haha! His age is just my guess though...

Oh, there was a big alpaca's doll so I took a pic with it. hehe ;) It was cute.

Here is the link to the resutaurant ZAKURO. If you have time, visit and check some information about the restaurant.

http://zakuro.oops.jp/menu/menu.htm

Thank you! :D

chicken and eggs

Hellooooooo! I've introduced Egg shell art last time, but I'd like to introduce you one of the famous Japanese dishes with eggs. It is Chicken and eggs bowl. Japanese call it "Oyako-don". Well, actually I'm a kind of lazy person so I will cook it with magical sauce... hehe

Ingredients:(Serves 2)
2 Eggs (beat them in advance)
Japanese soup stock (called "Dashi" I often use this because it fixes taste.)
Chicken (Cut them into mouthful size)
2 Onions (Cut them into slice)
(Sugar----if you like sweetened one, it's better to put some)

*Magical sauce* (In the middle of picture above.)
a sauce in witch to dip soba! (It's called "Soba-Tsuyu" in Japanese. This sauce is including soy sauce, a little bit sugar and things I need to cook Japanese dish so I like it! I often use this when I cook food boiled and seasoned. )

How to cook?
1st step: put a little oil and saute until brown.

2nd step: Add onions and heat them like this.

3rd step: Add a teaspoonful Japanese soup stock and mix them.
(When I was cooking this, I'm not sure why, but I was carried away by a sudden impulse and added a Peanut butter instead of sugar... haha The peanut butter is made in Japan and it's quite sweet and no chunk. It's not like Skippy)

4th step: Add magical sauce and simmer for a while.

5th step: Turn the gas a little bit down and add beated eggs and simmer for seconds.
(When you put eggs, try to put them slowly and like draw a circle. @@@@@)

MISSION COMPLEEEEEEEEEEEETE!!!!!!
Put what you cooked onto white rice and let's say "Readyyyyyyy!!!" :) If you tried this, please let me know how it was and if you have any question about this recipe, also leave a comment here. I will reply you ASAP. :)
I learned this recipe from my mother. She is quite smart and know how she can cook dishes easily and quickly. I am now training myself to be a good someone's wife and a mother like her.

Food or Art

Heyyyyyy!! Listen to my grumble!! Recently, large amount of assignments are killing me. I think I need to hang out somewhere! Take me away someone!! haha Anyway, let's start one of my hobby. ;) It is important for human beings to eat vegetables because they contains minerals and vitamins. Salad is one of the good way to take in nourishment. I like Salad and here is a picture of salad I ate today.

Egg, cucumber, ham and potherb mustard.
It was delicious! Today's blog, I will forcus on just Egg. Egg? We can see egg whenever and wherever. Egg is quite common food in our lives and it is famous for easily digestible food. People often eat it with ham, sausage or a slice of bread in the morning. However, on the other hand, Egg is beautiful, artistic and limitness. Here is the evidence for it...

The Eiffel Tower!

A beautiful carrage!

Jewelry box

Egg shell art
These are all made from Egg shell. It is so beautiful isn't it? Egg shell is usually junk. People through it away because they never think it becomes one of the art. Some people may not think so because they have Easter day, but I think most of Japanese people do not recognize Egg's possibility. When I found this art, I thought "There might be another thing that I can eat and also create something".
Egg shell art is very nice anyway! I'd love to try it! Japanese, especially girls love to decorate things such as phones, mirrors, nails and even an electric dictionary so I believe they can make marvelous egg shell art if they try it...mmm...

Does anybody wanna try this? If you do, let me know! Now I am looking for an Egg Shell Artist who works with me!!!
Thank you. :D

Rooooooooll cake!!!

Hellooooo! Here is a cake eater!!!! hahaha :D
Recently I am eating cakes everyday because my boss allowed me to bring some cakes back to my home with freeeeee! That's seldom happens though... It is like a dream. There are cake, cake, cake, cake...inside of the fridge. It's crazy!!! Actually, I've already eaten most of them. It may be time for me to think about DIETING!!!!! ewwwww...

This is the cake that I ate today. We usually call it as "Roll cake", but in English the name is "Swiss roll" and in French, "Roulade". It is interesting that one thing has different name in different country. Today, I will write about the origin of this cake. The roll cake we eat in Japan is originally from Swiss so in English name is Swiss roll. Roll cake was brought in Japan with other sweets such as castella in Edo era.

Look! This is a character called "Ku ru ru". I found this on the internet site. There is a Roll cake study group in Japan. omg... Moreover, there is a special day for Roll cake and it is June 6th. The reason why 6.6 is the cut end of the cake. You can see 6! Yes!!!! You can!!! Can't you? No, you can probably... For me, it seems like "no, の"　in Japanese. haha Do you know Japanese food that the origin is Roll cake? Most of the Japanese know and eat it in new year! It is one of the Japanese traditional food... That's "Date-maki"!!! It's surprising fact, but "Date-maki"'s origin is Roll cake! Now a day, there are various kinds of roll cake in Japan such as Matcha, Fruits inside of it, soybean flour flavor and even "Anmitsu". (Anmitsu is a Japanese traditional sweet and it is bean jam, agar and pieces of fruit served in syrup) What a creative!! I'd like to try some of them.

That's all what I've found about Roll cake. Did you have fun? If you know anything about swiss roll, please tell me. :) I like to eat not only cake, but also knowledge. ;p

Thanks!

What a wonderful Cheesecake...

Hi, everyone! Today, I'd like to introduce you a SUPER DUPER DELICIOUS CHEESECAKE called "Yume-Midori". You can't miss this post if you like or love cheesecake! This cheesecake is made in Kyoto, Japan. Some people might think, "mmm... Cheesecake is famous in Kobe or Hokkaido. Why Kyoto?" Well, you'll see in a moment. :D
The picture below is the package of the cheesecake.
It doesn't look like cake's package, does it? haha The color is green and some of the flowers and a leaf seems implying Japanese tradition...Yes, it is! This cheesecake is containing strong greentea, or "Matcha" in Japanese. The cake is surrounded by chocolate flavor tart. Can you imagin that greentea and cheesecake and chocolate tart are in harmony? They are very good trio actually.
This is the cake! mmm!!!! Looks yummy!!!
The size is about 14.5 centimeters across in diameter. The price is 2310 yen.
If you like Matcha, you should try it! The rich flavor of Matcha spreads in your mouth. Also, Cheesecake fans!!! Check this cheesecake! I do love cheesecake and perhaps I've eaten more than 30 kinds of cheesecake, but this cheesecake is the best cheesecake I've ever eaten.
I guarantee you the rich flavor and wonderful taste.
The shop's name is "Ito Kyuuemonn". This store is a long established store in Kyoto and selling Matcha products. They are maintaining Japanese tradition and now the 8th owner is running the store.

If you are interested in this store, visit the URL bellow.
http://www.itohkyuemon.co.jp/site/index2.html
You can order the products from Kyoto.

Thank you for reading my post. :)