by : Reiko Asian Food, Noodles/Pasta

Summer “White Hair” So-men Noodles
そうめんはじめました。

This cold noodle dish is THE summer dish people enjoy in Japan.

This type of extremely thin noodle is called “so-men”.

Interestingly, this particular brand named their so-men “Tomo-Shiraga”, which literally means “friend white hair”.

It’s the thinnest type of noodle found in Japan, and I guess the name is probably not too inappropriate (lol).

You cook the noodles (it takes no time!), and after cooling them down under running cold water, you serve them in a bowl full of iced water with ice cubes.

Just looking at this cools you down on a hot summer day.

Just a simple side dish is all you need.

What’s really important to So-men is preparing condiments.

There are so many different options, but the ones I got here are some of my favorites: scallion, Shiso (Japanese basil), grated radish (usually Daikon, but I used red radish), ginger, wasabi, and roasted nori (seaweed).

I love setting the table with a dish like this.

It reminds me of home.

When I sit down for a meal like this in front of me, it hits me and makes me realize something simple, “well I’m Japanese”.

Food often has a special power like that, really reminding you where you are from.

Now I’ll show you how to eat So-men.

You usually share a bowl of so-men with your family, but you’ll have your own small cup of chilled soup.

Use your chopsticks and scoop up noodles.

You don’t need a lot of noodles, just enough for one slurp.

Drop the noodles in your soup.

Add condiments to your soup.

Ta-da!

You have a perfect cup of noodle soup to enjoy.

Once you finish your noodles in your cup, repeat the process.

Add more soup and condiments as needed.

Thank you for reading.

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Fruit, Jackfruit

Bulgogi JF Tacos
プルコギ風タコス

Happy Taco Tuesday!

These tacos were famous Korean meat dish, Bulgogi, inspired ones.

Bulgogi means “fire meat” according to Wikipedia, and my beautiful jackfruit from Trader Joe’s was cooked over high heat after marinated overnight.

The trick is that you really want to get the charred look and flavor to the “meat” at this point.

If you ask me, the fixing is as important a part of any tacos.

This time I prepared napa cabbage slaw and home-pickled Shiso (Japanese basil) cucumber.

Also mashed avocado.

Don’t they look fabulous?

This was a bit messy to eat, but I never mind getting messy when I’m eating something delicious.

By the way, I finally had a chance to eat ripe fresh jackfruit at a party thrown by a friend who is from Cambodia.

She said her dad did all the work, and pulled apart the fruit, which I hear is a lot of work.

It was so delicious that a few days later I went to a local Asian grocery store and bought some.

Thankfully, they had a package of fruit that has been already taken out of the whole thing.

It’s a bit expensive, but I LOVE this fruit.

Very tropical, and a mere bite instantly takes me to the imaginative tropical island!

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Mushrooms, Noodles/Pasta

Zha Zha Zhu Zha Jiang Mian
ザーザーズー、ジャージャー麺

This is my take on the traditional Chinese pork noodle dish called Zha Jiang Mian.

 

My “meat” sauce is made of Shiitake mushroom as a main ingredient.

I used dried mushrooms, because they provide intense flavors.

This is how the Shiitake looked like when reconstituted and sliced (later it was chopped into small pieces).

This was so so good!

This is one of the dishes that I thought I would never get to enjoy when I switched to the 100% plant based diet.

But I when I made it and had the first bite, it was a “Zha Zha Zhu” moment for me all over again (lol).

This is definitely not the type of noodle you typically use to make Zha Jiang Mian, but lasagna pasta strips have been my recent favorite, and this was a good choice for this dish as well.

It’s such a beautiful dish.

Julienned cucumber is the typical garnish for Zha Jiang Mian, and it’s a well-thought one.

Not only does it give the fresh green color, but also its crunchy texture perfectly accompanies this dish.

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

Pot Sticker Combo Meal
食堂餃子ランチセット

Combo meals are nothing new in the U.S.

But typical combo meals you get in Japan look a bit different.

Instead of fries and soda, you typically get rice and soup (and maybe some kind of small veggie dish) that accompany the main dish.

And this is the kind of lunch option I often wish we had here.

My pot stickers were cooked beautifully.

Love the nonstick griddle.

It’s big and cooks a lot of pot stickers at once.

Garlic black pepper scallion soup.

Pea and corn fried rice.

Having a lot of plates on the table always makes me happy.

But it also usually means that you get a balanced meal.

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

Wasabi Shiso Salad Soba
冷やし蕎麦はじめました。

We had a beautiful day today.

It was warm, but not too hot like the last few days.

So I took advantage of it and went for a long walk..

I mean, a really long walk!

I was out for over two hours, and when I got home I was tired and sweaty.

Walking in the city is my choice of workout, and I really enjoy it.

There are a lot of good things about working out, but one of the best things I think is that after a workout I want to eat something healthy.

When I’m hungry, I’m often tempted to have rich foods like something deep-fried or sugary.

But after a workout even when I’m hungry, I want something light and fresh.

So after a bath (I was too tired to stand in a shower, so sitting in the tub was more appealing to me), I began chopping vegetables.

You can really use any vegetables, but one of my favorites is “shiso” or Japanese basil which you see in the middle of the bowl.

This really gives great refreshing favors to the dish.

Another “must” for me is wasabi.

Wasabi adds a clean spiciness, and it’s too good to be served only with sushi.

The dressing was simply made with soy sauce, white vinegar, sesame oil, and salt.

So yum!

This is something I bought at the Japanese grocery store, Mitsuwa, in Chicago when we visited the city a few weeks ago.

It’s dried roasted sweet potato, and it’s absolutely delicious!

It has been my go-to snack the last few days, and I’m sad that it’s almost gone…

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Breakfast, Japanese Food, Rice/Grains

J-Style Country Breakfast: Onigiri
田舎めし

I just got back from a two-day trip to Chicago.

Love the windy city.

It was a short trip, but I ran into the fabulous donut shop where I had one of the best donuts (vegan) ever: Firecakes Donuts.

If you visit or live in Chicago, go there!

I had dark chocolate donut and it was insanely good.

The donut alone was worth traveling to the city.

I also got to try delicious Korean food at Amitabul.

I had their Dr. K’s Cure All Noodle Soup and All-Vegan Pizza, and they were both delicious!

But there is always a must-stop place in Chicago when we drive there, Mitsuwa, a Japanese grocery store.

Although our Twin Cities local Asian grocery stores carry a lot of Japanese foods now, there are still things you only find at Mitsuwa.

I got several goodies, and these are one of them: traditional Japanese fermented pickles.

I decided to make onigiri (Japanese rice ball) using these pickles for breakfast this morning.

The dark one is “Pickled Melon with Bake Less”; that’s what the package says.

And the lighter one is “Natural Nuka Takuan; Pickled Rice Bran Radish”.

I love Japanese pickles, and I grew up eating a lot of these.

My parents used to call me “Miss Tsukemono (pickles in Japanese)”.

Freshly cooked brown rice.

This country style breakfast was exactly what I wanted to create after a long drive home from the city.

I even made miso soup, and I was proud of myself!

This is something my husband picked up at Mitsuwa.

This is a type of sencha green tea, called “Gyoku-ro”.

Gyoku-ro is the king of sencha green tea, and of course, the “Grower’s Reserve” sign got his attention.

We tried a cup last night, and he really liked it.

But he said it’s going to be a weekend tea, because it’s special (well, it’s expensive for sure, lol).

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Tofu

Fresh Exotic Larb Salad
エキゾチック・ラーブサラダ

I was beyond excited when I found that larb salad can be prepared vegan at Nong’s Thai Cuisine Restaurant.

It was so good that I had to try making it at home.

I’m not a huge fan of seitan (or any gluten hunk), but when you really want the certain meaty texture, I do use a small quantity of it.

I also used fried tofu as the major part of the dish.

People think it’s a “meat” dish, but what really make this larb salad so special are fresh herbs and veggies,

Lime, mint, cilantro, scallion, shallots…

So fresh and delicious!

This flavor combination is no longer new to me, as I’ve been plenty exposed to Southeast Asian cuisine long enough, but it still strikes me as “exotic”, and I love it.

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

J-Style Sweet and Sour V-Balls
V団子の甘酢あんかけ

When I came to the US for college many years ago, there weren’t a lot of Asian restaurants.

My school was located in a very rural part of the country, so when I found a small Chinese restaurant that was a 30 minute drive away, I was ecstatic (lol).

Things have since changed, and now we have so many various Asian restaurants in our neighborhood; I did move to the city setting.

A Chinese dish called “Amazu-an” in Japanese was always one of my favorites, and I was hoping to find the same dish in the U.S.

Finding it was not much of a problem, because the name itself was so self-explanatory, “Sweet and Sour”.

But finding a high-quality sweet and sour dish has been somewhat more challenging.

I happened to have homemade V-meatballs, and I decided to make my own sweet sour using a Japanese recipe.

Even though there are a ton of veggies in my v-balls, I still like to have additional veggies.

Isn’t it beautiful?!

Make sure to coat the v-balls and vegetables with this scrumptious thick sauce well.

The sweet and sour is delicious over rice, but I decided to use my recent favorite, Japanese-style fried noodles.

I cooked the noodles over high heat until they were really crunchy.

This turned out to be a great lunch!

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Sweets

Mini Daifuku Pouches
ミニ苺・パイン大福

Daifuku is a type of traditional Japanese sweets.

It’s usually sticky mochi stuffed with sweet bean paste inside.

Sometime people like to add fruit inside along with the bean paste, and strawberry is probably the most popular one.

I happened to have beautifu fresh pineapple, so I decided to make the pineapple version, too.

The Daifuku mochi is pretty easy to make when you use a microwave oven.

Aren’t they adorable?

They are so smooth, just like baby’s butts!

I wasn’t sure how the pineapple version would turn out, but I really liked it, as its tartness goes well with the sweet beans.

It’s really refreshing.

My pink Sashiko (Japanese traditional embroidery) cloth looks perfect in this picture.

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by : Reiko Asian Food, Rice/Grains, Tofu

Yakko Rice Bowl
冷奴どんぶり

You may ask what is “Yakko”?

Well, you probably already know what it is.

It’s another name for “tofu”.

I don’t know why but we often use the term “yakko” to describe tofu dishes.

Napa cabbage.

One of my favorite leaf vegetables.

It’s crunchy, juicy, and I love the crunchy texture and the slight sweetness.

Radish is something I almost always have in my fridge.

Rice, a slice of soft tofu, and a mountain of fresh veggies, as well as fixings, such as grated ginger and chopped scallion.

Simple garlic chili sauce: garlic chili paste, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, oil

Very refreshing and satisfying.

This is a kind of lunch I can eat everyday.

By the way, these plates are also hand-made.

Since I don’t have much experience, when I put glaze on, I have some rough idea of the color my plates are going to be, but other than that I really have no idea of how (how dark, light, etc.) they will look.

So it’s always a kind of surprise when I go pick them up at the studio.

Yes, I still need to practice, but it’s so satisfying to eat out of a bowl my hands created.

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