by : Reiko Asian Food, Root Vegetables, Sandwiches, Tempeh

Shiso Renkon Banh-Mi
紫蘇蓮根バインミーサンドイッチ

When I have a sandwich, I usually feel like I should have another dish like soup or salad to go with it to provide additional nutrition, but with Banh-Mi I don’t feel that way because it’s full of vegetables and passes as a complete meal.

I usually make bread myself for sandwich, but for banh-mi I go to a specific Asian grocery store that sells this called “French Bread.”

It’s crunchy outside but soft and super light inside, perfect for banh-mi

I also bought Renkon lotus root from the same store today to use for the sandwich.

This is one of my husband’s favorites.

For the “meat” part I used Renkon and tempeh steak.

Inside the bread you’ll find homemade vegan “pate”, cucumber slices, tempeh and Renkon steak, pickled radish and carrots, and Shiso leaves.

The flavors are a bit different from the traditional one because of the use of Shiso instead of cilantro.

We loved it though!

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Breakfast, Tofu, Vegan Meat

Breakfast Spring Rolls
ブレックファスト生春巻き

Spring rolls are fun to eat, but not fun to make!!

I’m pretty good at folding things (e.g., pot stickers), but not so good at rolling things.

It’s hard to roll things tight, which is my problem.

This time I was faced with extra challenge, and some of them did not even close.

I probably put too much stuff inside.

But because of that you can see what’s inside (you have to find something positive in everything, right?).

If I remember it correctly, inside were homemade seitan meat, turmeric tofu, carrots, cabbage, peppers, noodles, sprouts, and cilantro.

Served with three different sauces, peanut, sweet chili, and black bean.

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Noodles/Pasta, Nuts/Seeds, Tofu

Black Bean Noodles with Tofu, Walnuts, and Garlic Chives
焼き豆腐、胡桃、にら入り韓国ブラックビーンヌードル

I haven’t gone back to the Korean grocery store I recently discovered, but I’ still enjoying making Korean black bean sauce.

It goes with everything, and I usually make a big batch to keep in the fridge.

You can add anything to black bean noodles, but this time I went with tofu steak, garlic chives, and walnuts.

When I want something protein and crunchy, I like to use walnuts.

It works well not only in baked goods, but also in savory dishes.

It turned out to be such a tasty meal.

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Rice/Grains, Vegan Egg

Enoki Tenshin-Han
えのき天津飯

Tenshin-Han is a Chinese dish popular in Japan.

It’s rice covered with omelet and served with thick sauce.

Tenshin-Han, is what we call this dish, but I’m not sure what Chinese people call it (or if it’s even a Chinese dish) or if it is served at Chinese restaurants in the U.S. and if so, what they call it.

I added a lot of Enoki mushroom, one of my favorite mushrooms.

It has a unique texture, and because of that some love it and others not so much (unfortunately my husband is not a fan of Enoki, so I feel a bit guilty buying them quite regularly; I made sauce without Enoki for him ).

I had craving for this dish, and it made me happy.

So good!

My vegan omelet (main ingredients are tofu and chickpea flour) turned out great too.

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by : Reiko Asian Food

Curry Tteokbokki
カレートッポギ

I got a bag of Tteokbokki from a Korean grocery store the other day.

I thought I would like it, but what I didn’t know at that time was that I would love it.

My husband is not a big fan of rice cake in general, but he even liked it.

So I was excited to cook it (or eat it) again.

The rice cake doesn’t have strong flavor, so I like to serve it in rich thick sauce/soup.

This time Japanese curry and Hijiki seaweed accompanied it, and it was a good idea.

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Rice/Grains, Soup/Stew

Cheese Soy Tteokbokki
チーズ揚げトッポギ

Several weeks ago I started this little project, visiting ethnic grocery stores in the Twin Cities area, one a weekend.

I’ve been rather busy the past few weeks, and I’m taking a little break from it.

But the last store I explored was a Korean store, and some of the things I bought included this Korean rice cake.

This was my first time to cook it, and I decided to serve it in a traditional way.

I didn’t buy these from the particular store, but I’ve already had them in my pantry/fridge.

I don’t know much about Korean cuisine, but I believe these are some of the things they use a lot, and I was glad I got to use them for this dish.

My first impression after my first bite was “HOT!!”

But after the first bite, I really enjoyed this dish.

Yes, it is spicy, but it’s also very flavorful.

My husband and I don’t do well with spicy food (we always ask for “mild” whenever restaurants offer that option!), but we both agreed that this was a good spicy dish.

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Sweets

Dark Date Steamed Cake
濃厚デーツ蒸しケーキ

First of all, this steamed cake turned out beautiful and delicious!

It was soft and moist with dark rich flavor, and I already ate a half of it by myself.

I do have to make a confession, though.

This was actually my second try to make Ma Lai Gao.

The first one was delicious, but the texture was too different.

It was moist but dense.

For this one I completely changed the ingredients, and it resulted in a much softer, not dense, texture.

However, the texture is still not like the authentic one, (again based on pictures and descriptions I see online because I’ve never tried the real thing).

It’s soft but not springy.

So at this point, I just call this a steamed cake.

But a damn good one!

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Vegan Meat

Kung Pao V-Chicken
カンパオVチキン

Chinese food is very popular in Japan, and I felt I had a good grasp of their cuisine.

So when I came to the U.S. and found a lot of dishes on many Chinese restaurant’s menus that were not familiar to me, I was shocked.

Kung Pao Chicken was one of them.

I never had the dish in Japan, but it quickly became one of my favorites.

I’m always looking for a fun product to try.

I found this vegan soy meat at the Asian grocery store, and I thought this would be a good “meat” to be used for Kung Pao as “chicken.”

The instructions on the package tell you to soak them in water for 30 minutes to make them soft, but they were far from “soft” after being soaked for more than 45 minutes.

Eventually, I cooked them in boiling water for 5 minutes or so.

Next time I will definitely boil them to avoid wasting time.

The “meat” browned well, and the texture was pretty good.

I think coating with strong sauce is the key when it comes to soy meat, and this dish worked well.

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Japanese Food, Noodles/Pasta

Ankake Yakisoba：Crispy Fried Noodles (homemade) with Vegetables and Thick Sauce
あんかけ焼きそば（手打ち）　　

This is what I wanted to make with my first homemade Chinese noodles (previous post).

It’s called “Ankake Yakisoba” in Japanese, but basically it’s “crispy fried noodles with vegetables and thick sauce”.

This was my first time making this dish with homemade noodles, and I absolutely loved it!

Homemade noodles really make a huge difference.

There are two important things about this dish, and one is that you want to make sure that your noodles are fried super crispy so that you can really enjoy the great combination of the crispy noodles and thick sauce, which is the second important thing (the sauce has to have the right thickness, not too thin, but not too thick either!).

YUM!!

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