Vegan Creamy Tomato Basil Sauce/Soup

One of my friends recently decided to become vegan and so I have been learning all kinds of new vegan recipes. There was one in particular that she and I made together, where we made a creamy pesto soup by using cauliflower as the cream. The base of that recipe worked out very well, so much so that I decided to recreate that recipe but to make a tomato basil sauce instead. The sauce I created was so good that I would make it again and eat it all by itself as a soup. This is a great way for those who are lactose intolerant or vegan to enjoy a creamy sauce and/or soup without any regret.

Quinoa Patties

 

 Remember food, you know food, the real reason I started this blog. Well I have been cooking a lot and yet have not been posting, oops. So I thought I would start with this one. I have grown a love for quinoa and while Nick was off in Japan I decided to make these quinoa patties. They proved to be quite delicious, which is good because I made over a dozen of them. I happily ate them for what seemed like every lunch and dinner for an entire week. 

World Heritage Sites in Japan

While traveling and visiting Japan, Nick and I quickly learned that Japan has many many UNESCO World Heritage sites, in fact according to the UNESCO website, Japan has 17 World Heritage sites in total, which compares to the much larger country of America that has 21 sites. According to UNESCO, "The World Heritage List includes 981 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value...and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria."

Here are some of the amazing World Heritage sites we were blessed with the opportunity to visit while in Japan.

Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara:

Todaiji Temple - The Great Buddha

Kasuga Taisha - a shrine with hundreds and hundreds of lanterns

Fujisan, sacred place and source of artistic inspiration

Mt. Fuji

Himeji-jo

Himeji Castle (currently under renovation)

Himeji Castle Garden - Kokoen Garden

 Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)

 

Tenryuji Temple - Zen temple in the Arashiyama district

Ryoanji Temple - Zen temple with famous rock garden

Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) - Temple building covered in gold

Nijo Castle - Former Kyoto residence of the shogun

The Honmaru - Ninomaru Palace - Nijo Castle

Kamigamo-jinja Shrine

Yasaka Shrine

Toji Temple - Large temple with Japan's largest pagoda

Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion) - Beautiful temple

Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome)

Peace Park

Sushi

I don't think I could truly say I lived in Japan (even if only for 5 weeks) if I didn't make Japanese food in our house, especially sushi. But, I not only cooked Japanese style food on a regular basis but I managed to make sushi multiple times, we even learned how to make rolls. Nick and I both love sushi and so it was great to live in Japan and get all the items we needed to make delicious sushi at home for super cheap. We managed to find us a sushi mat, wasabi, Japanese mayo, seaweed (nori), real crab, sushi grade salmon, tuna, sticky rice, cucumber, avocado, etc. Although we had the materials we didn't have quite the sushi roll making skills so our rolls didn't turn out the most attractive, but they sure tasted delicious!

 Lay out all the ingredients for your sushi rolls so that they are easily accessible to place on the seaweed (note the plastic wrap covering the sushi mat to keep the mat clean, a large plastic zipper bag works great too, just stick the mat inside the bag and seal)

 

Lay out the nori and spread the rice evenly over the paper to create a level layer keeping at least a finger width not covered on one end, then flip over so that the rice touches the plastic wrap and the empty nori is ready to be filled

 Place the ingredients you want in a single row on one edge of the nori

 Start the rolling process, make sure to tuck the ingredients away in the first roll

 As you roll up the sushi, squeeze it tight to make the roll stick together, use the mat to help with that

 Remove the roll and then slice into bite size pieces, to help make them equal start by cutting in the middle and then continuing to cut in the middle of the other parts

Sumo Wrestling In Japan

Sumo

Of course when you think of Japan, one of the things that usually comes to mind is sumo wrestling. The sport of sumo is unique to Japan and incorporates tradition like no other sport that I can think of. It is probably one of the only sports that hasn't undergone changes year after year due to safety concerns and corporations. We didn't know much about sumo when we got here but we knew we had to watch some sumo while we here. Lucky for us, there was a 15-day tournament in Nagoya (only an hour  away by train) and so we were able to plan a day to stop by Nagoya on our way to Tokyo to see some sumo wrestling and to see Nagoya Castle.

Nagoya Castle

The Sumo Gymnasium

The Sumo Tournament Brochure (In Kanji, you read from right to left)

Tokyo DisneySea

For those of you who know me, you should know that I have an affection for all things Disney, especially the theme parks. Therefore, when I found out Nick got into NSF Japan, I was very much ready to book tickets to go to Tokyo Disneyland. I started sharing my plans with others and I quickly learned from those who have been to Japan before that Tokyo Disneyland was no different from Anaheim Disneyland; that they were mirror images of one another except in different countries. With that information, I decided I would not allow myself to go to Tokyo Disneyland since there is no point in spending time at a park I have been to a million times in the States when I am in a new country that has much more than just Disneyland to offer. Then I found out that there was another Disney theme park in Tokyo called DisneySea. As soon as I learned that Tokyo DisneySea was a unique Disney park, I booked our tickets! Luckily, they offer a night ticket where you enter the park after 5pm and it is half price, so we managed to "save" some money. Plus, Disneyland has always been more magical to me at night. Our tickets cost a measly 3300 yen ($33), which is ridiculously cheap compared to a day at the Disney parks in Anaheim (currently $92), which was a nice surprise. 

DisneySea Land Map

Climbing Mt. Fuji

 

 "The Japanese say that to climb Mt. Fuji once is wise, but to climb it twice is foolish."

The Yoshida climbing trail

Ain't that the truth! When I found out Nick got accepted by NSF to go to Japan this summer, I immediately started researching things we could do. When looking at a list of top things to see/do in Japan, one of the things that stuck out the most to me was climbing Mt. Fuji. Some of the best experiences we have had while traveling the world have been adventure/active type things like; hiking the snow caped mountains in Alaska, kayaking in Canada, hiking the sacred seven pools in Hawaii, spelunking the glow worm caves in New Zealand, and so on. Therefore, something like climbing Mt. Fuji sounded perfect and I immediately made it a top priority for our travels in Japan. Although I was a little worries about the distance, most of the websites we read listed climbing Mt. Fuji as a relatively moderate-beginner hike, where it would take an average of 6-7 hours to the top and 3-4 hours down, starting from the halfway point (5th station). Seeing as how we hiked the Grand Canyon last summer and we basically hiked down and back up in half the time that was estimated for certain trails, I figured this would be no problem. For the most part that was true.

Food In Japan

Here is a photo journal of our food experiences in Japan thus far: 

Okonomiyaki: prepared much like a pancake with flour, eggs, cabbage, meat, seafood, and so on. The ingredients are blended in a bowl and then cooked on a griddle

My okonomiyaki on the left contained pork, beef, kimchee, fried egg, and green onions

Nick's okonomiyaki on the right consisted of pork, beef, cuttlefish, and shrimp

Takoyaki: ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a batter and cooked in a special takoyaki pan. It is filled with minced or diced octopus (tako), tempura scraps, pickled ginger, and green onion served with Bonito fish flakes

 Deep fried chicken and potatoes

 Pictured left: Chinese dumplings stuffed with pork

Pictured right: Deep fried soy (tofu) with green onions and radish

Pictured left: Seafood salad with lettuce, lemons, shrimp, squid, salmon, and olives

Pictured right: Salad with lettuce, ham, hardboiled egg, tomatoes, corn, and croutons

Pictured left: Fried shrimp, quail eggs, renkon (lotus root) etc.

Pictured right: seafood rice with shrimp and smoked salmon (the yellow stuff is grated egg)

 Pictured left: Yakisoba noodles (similar to chow mein) 

Pictured right: chicken dish with sprouts and green onions

 Shrimp Tempura, served with rice, miso soup, tartar sauce, green tea, and some pickled vegetables

 Shaved ice with strawberry syrup, most are served with condensed milk and sometimes the Japanese sweet bean curd

 Sushi at home: Crab, Tuna, Salmon, Shrimp, Scrambled eggs, and Salmon Eggs

 Sushi in a restaurant (kindly hosted by Nick's professors). This ship platter includes (starting from the right to the left): wasabi, eel with plum, Bonito, Yellowtail, Tuna, Steak, Snapper, Squid, Sea Urchin, a miscellaneous mollusk, and Abalone

 Pictured left: raw horse meat; apparently some horse in Japan are raised solely to be eaten by humans (Nick's professors love it). Pictured right: more sushi hosted by Nicks professors; Cooked eel, Sea Urchin, Yellowtail, and Squid

Myself, Nick, Sensei Kauai, Sensei Toyoda, and the restaurant owner

One quick sidenote: I am surprised by how many things they eat raw in this country. They eat shellfish raw including shrimp and other things like scallops, squid and octopus etc.  They also eat raw meats including pork. These things are unheard of in America but people in Japan eat it all the time. I have not allowed myself to try any of these things, I am sticking to only raw fish (although I did try the raw horse). 

 

Pictured left: cabbage salad with a sesame dressing, seafood fried rice, and pork cutlet

Pictured right: Stir fried Udon noodles with steak, rice, miso soup, beans

Japanese version of Mexican nachos (we were desperate for something not Japanese)

 I'm making sure we get our salmon fix while we are here since it is so cheap. These are some home made dishes I prepared. Pictured left: broccoli, rice, and salmon cooked in a soy sauce and sesame oil reduction with green onions and garlic. 

Pictured right: rice, mixed potato pancake, and garlic pepper salmon

 Dried fish products found in the store

One of my home made concoctions: yakisoba noodles, garlic, onions, cabbage, green onions, miso broth, and thin slices of pork

 

We are enjoying our Japanese food experiences but it is very repetitive. We both miss pizza the most but we will wait until we return home to fill that craving because the pizza here (advertisements pictured above) are quite different (primarily seafood toppings) and quite expensive, a large is upwards of 3000 yen ($30).