Rice!

The thing I love most about "traditional" bento is the rice bit... I'm a carb addict and short grain white rice is my favourite, and it's surprisingly filling for a heavily processed grain.

Somehow I can't get used to brown rice... it's ok for "Western-ish" dishes, but it tastes very wrong with most Asian food IMHO. What do you think?

My camera died a little so this is a bad phone picture of an amazing bento- cannonball onigiri, satay skewers, tomato and spinach (hidden underneath). This was my first time trying the completely round onigiri version, and it was a lot of fun to make and eat!

Friday I brought some sushi to work since one of my co-workers claimed she had never eaten home-made sushi.



Friday night, after all these very Japanese lunches, I badly craved some stick-to-your-ribs food, and since the veg box brought me a huge savoy cabbage this week, I made colcannon with sausages and much brown sauce! Sorry, mashed potatoes with cabbage just can't look pretty...

Yucky Japanese things!

... that's how a certain co-worker who sustains on a salad and pasta diet called my lovely bento! On the right, there's wakame/cucumber salad with shichimi togarashi, the right has rice, some wasabi, ume and "chicken" satay pieces. Both in my Monokuro Boo boxes, matching the motto: "Simple is best" XD

I know it's Saturday already, I've got my two other bentos for the week on my camera, so more to come this weekend!

Classic Bento

... in a not-bento-box, but this former pakora box is very useful and just the right size for a bento!
So yesterday I kept it very classic Japanese, with rice, toasted nori hidden by carrot kinpira and fake chicken breast. I also took a boring little salad with mizuna and rocket to work, but that didn't photograph well at all in the morning.


Tonight I'm going to one of my favourite place in London, the Globe theatre, to see the much-neglected Love's Labour's Lost!

Praise the Non-Seitan

Usually I'm not a lover of fake meats, I try a new product for the novelty of it, and if it's good, maybe have it every 2-3 months. But a few weeks ago, in Wing Yip, I found my addiction:

TKC is a Malaysian company that makes fake meat/fish that tastes pretty authentic and is very easy to cook with, but doesn't freak you out because even if the texture is good, it's clear it's not real meat. Plus, they don't include a billion additives, most is soy-based.

I'm addicted to the "chicken breast" and the "Satay", and last week I bought their fake cod, which is flavoured with seaweed and the "skin" is a sheet of nori- pure heaven and finally something to take care of my fish cravings.

Couldn't take any pictures of the cod because it was scoffed instantly, but here's the prawns (not authentic-looking at all, the other varieties you can buy with their intense red/pink colouring are quite creepy, no?) with soba and some stir-fried mizuna:


And today's breakfast (miso soup not photographed), pretty easy to tell what's what. The chicken is seriously addictive!!!


I haven't seen the products anywhere else, but if you're in the UK, Wing Yip has their megastores in London (Croydon and Cricklewood), Birmingham and Manchester.

That time of the year again...

I didn't realize it was time for VeganMofo again, since I haven't subscribed to Kittee's blog, shock!
When you haven't blogged in such a long time that you can't even remember your login data (and neither could my browser!), it's time to take action.

London has been incredibly good to me, and so I think it's time I stop buying crap before work or at lunch and start taking over the country with nice bento again. That's my Mofo Resolution: post a bento at least 4 times a week.

I need to get over my diet looking mostly like this:


and this:

The grand vegan BBQ

Last weekend the much anticipated East London (Essex?) BBQ took place - due to girly things and wacky train scheduled I didn't spend the night, but one day way plenty to suffer a proper vegan protein shock.

The night before I realized I had to bring something and invented some burgers (actually one kind, the other was an old standby recipe of mine). Alas, it was dark and I didn't take any proper pictures. Here are a few of them on the BBQ, along with awesome kebabs, shrooms and corn:

I had a lot of leftovers from making thai curry, so I decided to try a Thai-influenced burger... no pictures sadly, but here's the recipe since a few people asked for it.

Steffiburgers Thai-Style
(for 10-12 medium burgers)

• 150g tofu, drained and crumbled
• 4-6 medium mushrooms, finely chopped
• 2-3 spring onions, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbs rice wine
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• a pinch of shichimi togarashi (Japanese hot spice, any sort of chili powder will do as well)
• 2-3 tbs Thai green curry paste (I used Tesco's which I think is medium hot)
• a little flour

Mix everything and use flour as a binding agent- if you've squeezed the tofu properly, you'll only need about 3-4 tablespoons. Then form burgers- you can freeze those right away, but I pan-fried them and then froze them so they only took a short time on the bbq later.

The other week I made use of my Amazon.co.uk gift certificate and ordered a few new cookbooks, including Get it Ripe which I absolutely love!
Yesterday's dinner was influenced by the Quinoa with Bok Choy, Beans and pesto, except I forgot to buy bok choy and used spinach. I would never have thought of a combination like this, although it's so easy, very healthy and not to forget, yum!


And ah, keep your fingers crossed! I had the perfect job interview for an amazing job (event coordinator for an international exhibition company) the other day and will hear from them on Tuesday...

Japanese in Europe

So I've finally finished my exams, left my flat and moved to London. I'm jobhunting now and am seriously considering working at an Asian restaurant- yummy food and girls, hehe!

In spite of a huge Japanese population in Düsseldorf and other German cities, it is almost impossible to get vegan Japanese food at a restaurant.

The more excited was I when I found out there's a vegan shojin ryori place in Munich, called Kaede. Sadly, the lighting was gloomy, as was the entire place...

I stopped taking pictures after the starters because a) it was too dark to take pictures b) it just wasn't worth it.
We left the place, still starving, paying over 40 € in total for a tiny serving of chicken meatballs, gyoza, some tempura and a miniature bowl of ramen noodles. All of it completely tasteless.
I was one grumpy vegan after that!

(it's not Munich's fault, anyway. We also found a true gem, Tushita Teahouse which has a billion of teas, cupcakes and 3-4 lunch options every day. It's on Klenzestraße, like the ever-awesome Kopfeck)


Anyway, I met Sel in Brixton today. First we had a coffee at Honest Foods on 424 Coldharbour Lane (Americanos, Cappucinos, Latte etc. with soy milk all under £ 1.50!) and then had a late lunch/early dinner at Fujiyama. It's not even a veggie place, but all of the vegetarian options are vegan when you ask them to leave out the egg.
Look at the difference:

a humungous bowl of miso ramen!

gingery fried soba!

We paid less than 20 quid, including a big pot of green tea.
Have I already told you how much I love London?