Love sweet and sour dishes, and I get craving for it once in a while.
Once you get the stuff ready, the cooking process goes quickly.
Looks so good!
I have a perfect plate for this dish.
This was found at a local Asian grocery store.
I made a big batch, but it disappeared quickly!
Make sure you have a lot of freshly cooked rice to serve with this dish.
You have all the ingredients for your banh mi sandwich, but you are missing the right bread for it.
What would you do?
Make deconstructed bahn mi rice bowl!
I talked about this Trader Joe’s super firm tofu before.
This is REALLY firm and dense, and when cooked, the texture resembles that of chicken.
That’s why I say it’s a good first tofu to cook for tofu beginners.
We are definitely not beginners, but we still like it, as it’s different from other tofu.
Looks good, doesn’t it?
In addition to the tofu, I also prepared crunchy tempeh.
You first start with brown rice, and then add everything that would make banh mi otherwise.
Fresh crunchy veggies are a must.
How did I do?
I was in a mood for noodle soup, but with a little South Asian twist.
When I was checking my spice drawer, I noticed this little jar of lemongrass.
I bought it a long time ago, and I’ve never actually used it yet.
This lemongrass flavored soup was so refreshing when paired with fresh lime.
It was a perfect summer lunch.
I grew up eating ramen a lot.
It’s so popular in Japan, and when I found out that a lot of Japanese people post ONLY ramen pictures on their Instagram page, I was not surprised.
Some of them go out to eat ramen every day, and they don’t run out of new ramen shops to try!
Anyway, I’ve become a little more serious about ramen myself recently.
When I found this dried ramen noodles at Amazon which had great reviews, I had to order a package.
I also got myself a new bowl.
I always wanted to have a traditional ramen bowl.
I typically like a lot of toppings on most dishes, but when it comes to ramen, I’m probably a bit more traditional and stick with a few.
The most popular ramen topping is probably “Char Siu” or barbecued pork slices.
Instead of pork, I prepared yummy portabella mushroom slices.
The mushrooms were so delicious; a bit sweet and a bit spicy from these Japanese “shichimi” spices.
The noodles were cooked perfectly.
Ramen looked so good in my new bowl!
Made me feel like I was back in Japan.
I really liked these noodles as they are so authentic.
They have the right chewiness, flavors, and look.
The soup turned out to be super tasty too.
Tonkotsu ramen is known for its rich flavored soup.
“Tonkotsu” ramen became quite popular in the U.S., but I’m not sure if people really know what that means.
Tonkotsu literally means “pig/pork bones”, and you make your soup from them.
(My vegan version contains no pork or any type of meat, but it does have a similar rich flavors that are very satisfying.)
“Tonkatsu” is another popular Japanese dish in the U.S., and I sometimes hear people say “Tonkatsu” ramen, but that’s incorrect, unless the ramen is served with “tonkatsu” as a topping.
Tonkatsu is “pig/pork cutlet”.
Just a little not-so-necessary piece of information (lol).
But if you say “Tonkotsu ramen” correctly, you will certainly look like someone who knows your ramen (lol).
The soup was delicious as it was, but a little splash of this Yuzu hot sauce I found at Trader Joe’s brightened up the flavors.
I always wanted to take a picture like this.
If you eat good ramen, I think it’s obligatory.
And this is an acceptable way in Japan to finish your soup.
I do not recommend doing this in the western countries though.
Tonkotsu-Style ramen soup: onion and garlic sauteed in canola oil, water, kiridashi-kombu, tahini, soy milk, mirin, sugar, soy sauce, salt, pepper
I make sushi rolls often, but I still get excited when I make one.
As a result, I tend to prepare too much stuff to roll in.
I don’t always do this, but it is fun to serve with sauce.
I happened to have just made V mayo using this recipe (except that I used apple cider instead of lemon juice).
What you see here are sushi brown rice, cucumber, sweet and spicy tempeh, avocado, and radish.
It barely closed!
So good!!
The mayo and teriyaki are a golden combination.
When people travel, they often bring something home.
For me it’s usually a food idea(s).
This RED Ramen was inspired by Vegan Tonyu Red (ramen) I had at Marukin Ramen in Portland which I visited last month.
I tried to upload my picture of their ramen, but for some reason I was not able to.
But trust me, their soup was red!
I mean really red.
When I first saw it, I instantly thought it would be way too spicy to eat, but it wasn’t.
It was spicy, but more than anything, it was tasty.
So now back home I wanted to make my own red ramen.
These are not really ramen noodles because they are a bit wider and flatter, but I like these.
First of all, they are vegan (no eggs).
And I like its ingredients.
Simple.
No artificial yellow coloring.
Believe it or not, lots of noodles contain artificial yellow coloring.
Next, I pick a bowl for my ramen.
This is not a traditional ramen bowl, but the “white x red” color combination with the unique design makes it a good candidate.
(I’m actually shopping for a traditional ramen bowl right now.)
Made in Japan!
Noodles go in first.
Soup, and then grilled king mushrooms and toppings.
My RED Ramen was super tasty!
And spicy.
So I think I accomplished my mission with this one.
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.
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!
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.
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.
