Kyushu by car



Last Friday around 3 am, we woke up and headed down route 8 to the highway. J drove till nearly 4pm that evening, when we arrived in Shimonoseki, just north of Kyushu. We stopped, visited a few temples, had dinner, and did a bit of yoga in a nearby park with a view of the bridge we'd soon be going over to the last island we had to thoroughly investigate. The map on our wall is covered with pins marking where in Japan, J and I have visited over the past 7 (for him) and 5 (for me) years we've been here. Poor wall is going to look like Swiss cheese by the time we're out of here.

I won't go on an on, but will post pictures from the trip, with some short descriptions. Hope you enjoy!

so, they're a little fugu (blowfish) crazy in Shimonoseki

did I mention the fugu?

fugu fins posted to dry outside of a local store

Hōichi the Earless

inside the Akama Shrine


J's shot of the boat at Akama's gate


Miko sweeping at Tenman-gu


J captured a shot of a Miko training troupe


path to Tenman-gū shrine in Dazaifu


lest you think we take ourselves too seriously


shishi antics


raked rock garden


vampire dog (check out that cape!) at the shrine Saturday market


the one that J likes at Sofukuji in Nagasaki


"shattered glass" door design at Kokufuji in Nagasaki


J discovering Nagasaki in Ryoma Sakamoto's boots


me too!


don't mess with carpentry donkey/horse


Suwa Shrine from a distance


the approach to Suwa


wandering the hillside temples


my new friend and her mom next to the single tori in Nagasaki


the martyr's monument


yup... that's Kannon riding on the back of a massive turtle


he's yelling at you to remember about beef

learning about pork is also important


Nagasaki Peace Park (beefy statue in distance)


bask in his beefiness


J peeking out

tree after the blast


the tree's great comeback!


a fat pony at Yutoku


Yutoku Inari-jinja


sakura in full bloom


a very subtle love hotel advertisement we saw on the way to Aso


heading into the Aso-shi caldera


J playing kitchen wench at our cold-ass campsite on Aso-san


vegan sausage yum


J's moon shot


there was ice on the car and the tent in the morning

Alright, that's a little over 1/2 way. I'll save the rest for another post. It's off to study for now.

Spinach Falafel Wraps and Gorgeous Shiitake


This is as simple as it sounds, and even more delicious. My aforementioned evil oven doesn't get any hotter than 250C (480F) which puts a damper on my naan and pita baking. I was a bit short of time a few weeks back, possibly due to the fact that I spent hours baking bread and cake... Anyways, I needed to feed J and myself, and was craving some chickpea love.

Follow your favorite falafel recipe. Everyone's quite particular about how they like their falafel. And honestly, with my lack of a deep frying pot, mine come out looking a bit worse for wear. Good but sloppy.

Mix up some Israeli salad.

• 1-2 grated small cucumbers
• 1-2 grated carrots
• 1/4 cup Italian parsley
• a dash of olive oil
• a dash of lemon juice
• 1/2 cup diced tomato (optional)

Make a small bowl of tahini.

• 1/3 cup sesame paste
• 1/4 cup water or yogurt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• lemon juice to taste

Make sure to get large leaf spinach, and rinse off all the grit. Using the large raw leaves, you really have a strong base for the falafel. Give it a shot instead of the fresh pita next time. Don't worry, if you really love the pita, just try shoving some fresh spinach in there.



Before our grand falafel evening, we spent the afternoon with some good friends out in the country. They set a few of us loose in the shiitake patch behind their house. Look at these beauties!

Irish Soda Bread


Nearly every year, when I was growing up, my mom prepared this bread for St. Patrick's Day. I recall demanding it more often, but I can't remember if she caved-in to my demands or not.

When I started playing in the kitchen routinely, this was one of the first recipes that I hunted through her recipe box for. When I lived in England, I found that Mark's & Spencer sold a soda bread that satisfied my needs similarly, but it wasn't quite right. This recipe is the quintessential soda bread for me, partly because of the twist that my mom put on it.

Normal soda breads call for the addition of caraway seeds and raisins, but my mom added orange zest and orange extract instead. Sometimes I make a simple orange glaze to go on the top of the bread. I have brought a loaf to school a few times and shared it with my students. It received the high school student seal of approval.

Irish soda bread

• 3 ½ to 4 cups unbleached flour (or use 2 ½ cups whole wheat flour plus 1 cup unbleached)
• ½ to ¾ cup raw or brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 ¼ cups buttermilk (or regular milk soured with 1 teaspoon vinegar)
• ½ cup golden raisins or currants (optional)
  
• 1-2 teaspoon dried caraway seeds (optional)
• *1 teaspoon orange extract (alternate version)
  
• *2 teaspoon orange zest (alternate version)

1. Preheat oven to 375F/190C
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. Cut the butter into the flour mixture, using two knives or a pastry cutter, until crumbly.
4. Add egg and buttermilk (*extract and zest if making orange version). Mix until moistened. The dough will be stiff. Add raisins or currants and caraway seeds, working into the dough.
5. Form into a round loaf on a greased baking sheet, adding more flour as necessary. Use a knife to cut a spiral or cross on the top, if you wish.
6. Bake one hour. Best served warm, and eaten the same day you bake it.

The past few times that I have made the bread, it hasn't risen appropriately (evil oven perhaps?), so I made a few adjustments to the recipe, and am proud to say that this bread rose like a dream. Also, this time, due to J's insistence, I left out most of the orange (no zest, just a bit of extract) and added the caraway seeds. Oh, he was right. They really did add a new dimension to the bread, and I didn't find myself missing the orange at all. Perhaps next year, I will just have to make both.

Carrot Cake!


Having been logging my calories for the past few months, and actually seeing some lasting results, I decided to splurge a bit. Running through the list of desserts that I have successfully prepared before, nothing sounded right for the particular urge I was feeling. Also, the limited ingredients that I have on hand in Japan stifle my creativity sometimes.

The trick here is tweaking the recipes enough so that a single meal or cake doesn't cost as much as your rent. That usually means cutting back on the butter, the nuts, and many special ingredients that you wouldn't think would cost so much (powdered sugar, seriously how are you that expensive?) Fortunately, J and I brought two massive bags of nuts (walnuts and pecans, respectively) back from the US in January. I also had a bag of carrots on-hand. So, I decided to try my hand at creating a delicious and not 'overwhelmingly bad for us' carrot cake.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
  
• ¾ cups canola oil
  
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
  
• 2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  
• 3 cups grated carrots
  
• ½ cup chopped pineapple
  
• 1 cup pecans chopped

Icing

• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 8 ounces (one package) cream cheese, softened
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (to top)
  

*I would probably swap the pecans and walnuts (inside to outside) next time

Mix the wet ingredients together, then add into the dried. Fold in carrots, pineapple, and finally nuts. Pour into greased baking tray or cake pans. I baked at 180C for about 50 minutes, but the time will vary depending on your oven, because my oven is a bit of a monster. The icing was mixed and applied after the cake cooled, then the nuts were placed haphazardly on top.

The recipe requires some fiddling, as it came out really moist and dense. J mocked the sound of a piece dropping onto a serving plate. PLOP! It was delicious, but not perfect. This recipe is going in the "needs adjustments" file, but for a first attempt, I'd say it was a success.

Kyushu Roadie

Far too early tomorrow morning, J and I will be heading out of drizzly Toyama and driving south. We should arrive in Fukuoka (Dazaifu) sometime past midnight, where we will have a delightful night's sleep in the car. The trip should last about a week, and we're planning on covering a lot of territory. That means photos soon!

Black Beans and Rice Cooker Magic

I was brave this Sunday. I tossed 2 1/2 cups of rinsed dried black beans into my rice cooker with two bay leaves and a chopped clove of garlic. 5 cups of water and one sleep later... the beginnings of an awesome soup.

Sadly, I was so excited about presenting J with the pretty bowl of soup and cornbread, that I neglected to take a photo. He assured me that it was photogenic. Next time! But till then, here's the recipe.

(finger numbingly good) Black Bean Soup

2 1/2 cups dried black beans (obviously more after re-hydration)
1 clove of garlic roughly chopped
1-2 bay leaves (I have a bundle in my freezer from my veggie dealer, and need to use them up)
2 small/medium red onions chopped
1 decently sized red bell pepper chopped
2-3 cloves garlic (yes more garlic, ALWAYS more garlic) minced
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of one lime
handful of cilantro/coriander
1-3 chilis diced (I used what we had available at our local Brazilian store, and am not sure what kind they were... made my finger go numb for a bit, so I take it they mean business)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Pop the first 3 ingredients and 5 cups of water into your rice cooker. All I did was hit "cook" and let things roll until I got up the next morning. Make sure to prep well in advance if you are cooking this the same day!

2. Add olive oil, onion, garlic, pepper, and cumin to pan and cook till onions start to brown slightly. Be careful not to burn the cumin on the edges of the pan (coat well with oil before adding it).

3. Transfer the pan love into a large bowl and toss in the chili, lime juice, and cilantro/coriander, followed by about 1 cup of the beans.

4. Mix well with submersion blender (if available) or transfer batches into food processor/blender first, then into a large bowl. Continue till all the beans are mixed (unless you like your soup to be lumpy and beany... your call).

5. Now is the time to add your salt and pepper to taste. You could add a few tomatoes here, to thin out the soup without losing flavor, or you could add a cup or two of hot water with veg bullion or possibly a bit of soy milk. I opted for a thick soup and left it as is.

This soup is delicious over fresh cornbread*, and perhaps a dollop of sour cream (vegan or otherwise), if you are feeling naughty.

*I initially followed a cornbread recipe in my ancient vegetarian cookbook that called for 4 eggs (I was astounded by the amount of eggs, but figured the cookbook knew better than I did). The first batch came out of the oven smelling raunch. Probably because I am not a huge egg fan. J dutifully tasted it and threw it away (it was unsalvageable, despite my initial mottainai leanings), whilst I whipped up PPK's tried and true vegan cornbread with the minor adjustment of nixing the syrup. Soooo much better than eggy goo!

To Begin

I came across the following at yogapoint's blog .

"Below is Satyananda Saraswati's personal sankalpa (intention), may it serve to inspire us as it did him."

I am an invisible child of a thousand faces of love,
That floats over the swirling sea of life,
Surrounded by the meadows of the winged shepherds,
Where divine love and beauty,
The stillness of midnight summer’s warmth pervades.

Life often cuts at my body and mind
And though blood may be seen passing,
And a cry might be heard,
Do not be deceived that sorrow could dwell within my being
Or suffering within my soul.
There will never be a storm That can wash the path from my feet,
The direction from my heart,
The light from my eyes,
Or the purpose from this life.

I know that I am untouchable to the forces
As long as I have a direction, an aim, a goal:
To serve, to love, and to give.
Strength lies in the magnification of the secret qualities
Of my own personality, my own character
And though I am only a messenger,
I am me.

Let me decorate many hearts
And paint a thousand faces with colours of inspiration
And soft, silent sounds of value.
Let me be like a child,
Run barefoot through the forest
Of laughing and crying people,
Giving flowers of imagination and wonder,
That God gives free.
Shall I fall on bended knees,
And wait for someone to bless me
With happiness and a life of golden dreams?

No, I shall run into the desert of life with my arms open,
Sometimes falling, sometimes stumbling,
But always picking myself up,
A thousand times if necessary,
Sometimes happy.
Often life willl burn me,
Often life will caress me tenderly
And many of my days will be haunted
With complications and obstacles,
And there will be moments so beautiful
That my soul will weep in ecstasy.

I shall be a witness,
But never shall I run
Or turn from life, from me.

Never shall I forsake myself
Or the timeless lessons I have taught myself,
Nor shall I let the value
Of divine inspiration and being be lost.
My rainbow-covered bubble will carry me
Further than beyond the horizon’s settings,
Forever to serve, to love, and to live
As a sannyasin.

- Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Beware the Squash Hand!



Were you aware of the possible allergic effects for butternut and acorn squash? Admittedly, I stumbled across a mention of possible allergic reaction on a food site a while back. Didn't think much of it, and assumed I was impervious, since I am not allergic to poison ivy. In my mind that makes you invincible. Alas... this is not so.

Within about 3 minutes of cutting the skin off of a raw butternut squash, the skin on my left hand started tightening itself closed. I immediately washed the hand with soap, to remove any irritant, and sent J onto the internet to figure out why my hand was morphing into an aged monkey claw.




The culprit was the droplets oozing from the edges of the squash. Earlier, the goo adhered the top half of the squash to my cutting board like superglue. I never expected an allergic reaction.


After 30 minutes, the skin was cracked and tight. I added water and moisturizer, which helped temporarily, but soon was absorbed.


The skin turned orange as well. As you can see below. I applied something akin to cortisone cream, and slept with a cotton glove on to keep in moisture.


After the next full day wearing the glove, I woke up to find the first layer of skin peeling off. It was what Elmer's glue used to look like if you let it dry on your hand in elementary school. Within the next few hours, my hand looked perfectly normal again. A quick recovery for an unexpected case of dermatitis. Be careful making your butternut squash soup this winter, everyone!

Vegetarian (vegan) Shepherd's Pie



This autumn, J and I were inundated with gifts from our school and friends' gardens. Our kitchen was filled with persimmon, sweet potato, onions, and potatoes. Having worked through most of the overstock, I am still faced with how to use 5 persimmon tomorrow (perhaps a bread?) and about 4 gargantuan sweet potatoes. Looking at a pile of radish greens, onions, and potatoes provided from our friend Miyawaki-san's hatake, I decided to make something pie-like. Inspired by the recipe from fatfreevegan , I concocted a Farmer's Pie.

Farmer's Pie

5-6 small to medium potatoes
1/2 cup soy milk
dash of salt and pepper
1 tbsp canola oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
6-8 ounces fresh mushroom, diced
2 cups vegetable broth
1 can/pack kidney beans
1-2 cups green beans, snapped
1 1/2 tsp thyme
2 tsp fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp sage
2 cups radish greens or spinach
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water

1. Cube and boil the potatoes.

2. Mash them, as you will, and add soy milk. Flavor with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

3. Using 1 tbsp canola oil, fry onions till translucent.

4. Add garlic, and cook for 2-3 minutes more.

5. Add carrots, celery, pepper, and mushrooms and cook for 3-5 more minutes.

6. Add veg broth, kidney beans, green beans, radish greens, and herbs. Simmer for 20 minutes.

7. Some liquid remains in the pan, so add corn starch and stir till sauce has thickened.

8. Pour into glass pie dish, and top with mashed potatoes.

9. Sprinkle with sage and rosemary. Broil for 3-5 minutes, till slightly browned.

*note: I added cheddar cheese to the top of the potato in this recipe (thus de-veganizing it), but we found that the cheese added nothing to the flavor of the dish, so I feel it's best to omit it.

Vegetarian Polish Sausage (take 1)



Last week, during my Japanese conversation class, I mentioned vital wheat gluten to my Sensei. To explain a bit, this man is possibly the most curious Japanese man I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. He is a Baptist minister who has traveled around the world, and is fluent in English and passable in a slew of other languages, most recently including Portuguese. I have the utmost respect for him as a teacher and a friend, and his family as well. His son became one of my first and best Japanese friends, and is a pretty impressive snowboarder (after just 2 seasons). The entire family are also musicians, and when Maekawa-sensei is not trying to get me to somehow understand transitive and intransitive verbs, he's convincing me I need to learn how to play the accordion, or perhaps start studying Chinese as well. Like I said... amazing man.

Back to wheat gluten. My sensei doesn't eat fish, which is considered rather odd in Japan. When I stay for dinner after class, his wife cooks vegetarian food, so we can all eat together. It's awesome and I have gleened many ideas from her cooking. When I mentioned I have been looking for gluten so I could make vegetarian sausages, his interest was immediately peaked. He ran upstairs and ordered 1kilo for us to share, and I it was delivered this week. Upon handing me my pack, he said, "You might as well take mine, too. You'll need it to make me sausages." Cheeky!

This is my challenge. An old childhood favorite, that I made a few times in university with store bought veggie sausage. Can it be done with no proper steamer?

I started with a variation of Isa's sausage recipe from the Veganomicon, and altered it for a more Polish flavor.

for the sausage

1/2 cup beans (I used cannellini)
1 cup cold vegetable broth
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp dried marjoram

1. Bring steamer water to a boil while preparing other ingredients.
2. Mash beans in large bowl with fork.
3. Add other ingredients as listed and mix well.
4. Shape into sausages and wrap with aluminum foil, be sure to twist ends of foil
5. Place in steamer for 50 mins.
6. Using 1 tbsp of olive oil, fry sausages for till uniformly brown on edges.

for the kraut

1 jar sauerkraut
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tsp caraway seeds

1. Cut sausages into 1.5cm thick slices.

2. In frying pan or hot plate, add sauerkraut, sugar, mustard, and caraway seeds.

3. Toss in slices of sausage and spoon kraut over them till well integrated.

4. Cover with lid and let simmer for 5-10 minutes.

I apologize for the most unappetizing food to ever be posted online, but I wanted to show the process for creating the sausages.


All tucked away in their make-shift steamer.

J gives it a 6 on a 1-10 scale (with 5 being I would eat it again as if some changes were made). The texture was surprisingly good, but admittedly the spice was not strong enough. I will "kick it up a notch" as requested, next time around. There was a definite flavor memory touched upon for me, though, so I was happy with my first attempt.

The Next Step

The clock is counting down in my mind. It's already November, and I have butterflies in my stomach about what comes next. Next month, J and I will be heading home for a few weeks to visit our families and to see how much America is still "home" to us. There is a long list of things I am looking forward to seeing, doing, and of course eating when I get back. J mentioned the ease with which we can eat out. No worrying about what hidden delights might be put in the "vegetarian" food, and he can freely go to a steak house knowing that they are bound to have at least one veg option on the menu. I, on the other hand, am delighted to dive into the supermarket. Living here has allowed me to level-up my cooking skills. I never anticipated I would be making tortillas, pita, pesto, and veggie patties and sausages with a mini-oven and range out of necessity. It's definitely been a wonderful experience, but having a full-sized oven, a freezer that fits more than 2 ice cube trays and a bag of frozen bananas, and sweet god perhaps even a counter-top larger than my cutting board would be AMAZING. I am getting way ahead of myself, though. Before I can dream of appliances and roots, we have to plan out this next year.

The loose plan is to head out in August. Where we will lay our heads from July 31st till August 20th (besides in a tent on a mountainside) is still up in the air. Onward then, to Thailand. It's so comfortable and centrally located, you can't help but to keep coming back. This will mark my 5th time visiting Thailand, and the longest chunk of time staying solely there. Whilst J and I drown ourselves in local food (FRUIT!!), we will be taking the CELTA certification course just outside of Chiang Mai. This course is about a month long, and will both give us a kick-start back into study mode, and provide us with internationally accepted certification. Nice to have in your back pocket.

We're hoping to hop over to Luang Prabang for a few days before or after the course as well. Steveo, we will be in need of your expertise!

Soon after the course comes to an end, it's back to Bangkok and then to Mumbai (with a possible stopover in Myanmar). I'm still waiting for the dates on this one, but J and I are going to spend a month at the Yoga Vidya Dham Ashram in Nasik, India. Perhaps my dear Kara will join us, but it's a bit far ahead to know yet.

So, we'll be limber, licensed, and certified. We want to wander around India for a while after the course, to really see the country. After we have satisfied our wanderlust enough, we will likely head to Amsterdam, and possibly London (on your toes, Callaghan!) before landing safely back in Detroit sometime in December.

Nothing is concrete... things haven't been paid for or reserved yet. My goal is to solidify these plans in the next few months, and relieve some of the crazy pressure I feel right now. If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts, I would love to hear them!

Oh I wanna go!

Kara has plopped this tempting offer in my lap.

Bali Spirit Festival

I am trying to find a way to legitimize spending the money for my ticket there. Health? Fun? Relaxation? Focus? That annoying voice of reason in the back of my head keeps reminding me that I need to be saving money for grad school. But ooooh how much do I just want to slam down 50,000yen for a ticket to Bali?!

Staying Warm and Saving Money

The winter is upon us, and many of us will soon be huddled in our apartments away from the cold. Once the snow kicks in, an escape to the mountains is possible for boarding fun. Unfortunately, it's just pouring rain outside and the wind is howling. This will likely continue till sometime near New Years.

We have several ways of fighting the cold in Japan. My apartment is decked out with a kotatsu (small table with a heated bottom, it's all sealed in with blankets, and you sit under it and absorb the warmth), which is perfect for that pre-JLPT study push. We also have J's electric carpet. Put it under the futon and allow the heat to radiate through to you! Yum. I don't like using the standing heater very much, because it sucks mercilessly at the electricity. Instead, I double the use by baking breads and casseroles in the kitchen, thus heating up the coldest area of the apartment. Bonus: added layer of winter insulation provided by pie and soda bread.

I think the best thing we have going, though, is the gym literally across the street. We can go over anytime for a workout, sauna, and sento. I intend on saving my own electricity this year by spending as much time as possible leeching off of Holiday Sports center. Mwaa ha ha.