I forgot to post this, but we went to our first vegan festival in Japan last Sunday.
We had no idea how busy it would be.
We got there a little after noon.
There were a few items sold out, and a few popular vendors had a short line, but the crowd was very manageable, which made our experience enjoyeable.
The food selection was wide and interesting.
The curried granola was absolutely delicious.
I’m thinking about borrowing the idea and making something similar myself.
Some vendors were local, and others seemed from out-of-prefecture.
We were so hungry when we got there, and our first food, Kuruma-bu Katsu Burger with Nanban sauce (sweet-sour sauce and mayo), tasted so good!
I liked the ingredient list, too.
We were supposed to continue with a few more savory dishes for our lunch, but we got detoured (lol) and got this beautiful Strawberry Croissant Roll, stuffed with vanilla cream and fresh strawberries.
Very tasty!
Apparently it was prepared ahead of the time, and it tasted good, but I bet it would taste amazing if it were fresh.
After our sweets craving was satisfied, we resumed our savory-food-search and found something interesting.
“Ganmo Burger”.
It’s a rice patty sandwiched between two Ganmodoki (Japanese fried tofu patties).
Very unique.
There were several flavor options, and we decided to get the curry one (below, left).
There was a lot going on!
The curry sauce was flavorful.
The rice patty was made with rice and some other grains.
There were a lot of vegetable and seaweed pieces in the ganmodoki.
We also found a few slices of lotus root, which gave a nice texture.
And the addition of seedy mustard was fantastic.
I’m glad we tried it because 1) it was delicious and 2) I have no idea when I can find a ganmodoki burger next time.
After the two burgers we were full.
But it was still fun to continue to check out all the vendors, including some corporate vendors that were displaying their vegan products; they were handing out samples and it was nice to try them.
I had no idea Kewpie (one of the most popular mayo brands in Japan) now makes plant-based mayo.
The festival took place at Tsuruma Park, which I hadn’t visited for a long time and forgot how nice it was.
We got home with things we bought and some samples.
(We tried the Vege Meat Sauce the other night with spaghetti, and it was delicious. This is a Karuna product just like the Mapo tofu sauce.)
