Vegan SA Blog

Chasing dragon fruit

… the journal of a South African vegan in Japan by Carey Finn

2 March 2010

Seasons in Japan are more distinct, or perhaps just better noted. As South Africans (Capetonians) enjoy the last stretch of summer before the brown leaves and gusty winds of autumn, we’re thawing out and enjoying the first signs of spring. The sun has been switched back on, and frostbite is no longer a risk on your way to the conbini. The plum blossoms are blooming, and hordes of Japanese – cameras, lenses, spare lenses, lens covers, tripods, spare tripods and children in tow – are jostling for position under the fragrant red, pink, white, gold and yellow blooms. This is a sure sign that spring has arrived.

We have been stalking the plum blossoms as they open across Osaka; beginning our stakeout at Osaka Castle. There are hundreds of carefully pruned and protected trees there; making for a great view, and, it seems, a good place to sell octopus balls – the local specialty. The smell of the blossoms is somewhat overpowered by the smell of burnt, rancid oil, so we moved on to Kanbai Viewing Spot # 2: the park near our house.

I heard that the blossoms, many of which give off an intoxicating, heavenly smell, are edible. Google told me so. Technically, it’s the blossoms of actual fruit plum trees that are edible … Google didn’t say anything about ornamental plums – the variety found in Japan. I decided to risk a tiny shred of petal anyway, and found that they taste intensely like … well, plum. Some taste like Grape Fanta too. I survived, but I wouldn’t advise tasting any random blossom – since even if it is edible (and more than just Google says so), you can’t be sure what kind of ‘cides have been sprayed on it.

While you don’t see many people biting the flowers off the branches, in processed forms, plum blossom products are widely used in Japan, most notably in plum wine (umeshuu) and teas. The flowers have also been the inspiration for traditional tea sweets – wagashi. A famous example is Red Plum Blossom with Frost, a sweet made by a Kyoto confectioner since 1699. It symbolises the plum blossom’s defiance of winter.

But enough about blossoms. This blog’s supposed to be about dragon fruit. February 14th marked the beginning of celebrations for the Chinese New Year, and, being a Tiger myself, I headed to China Town in nearby Kobe to eat dragon fruit and deep-fried sweets. Luckily for me, tigers were not on the menu. Instead, there were exotic and not-so-exotic fruits, teas, dumplings (not veg), deep-fried sticky rice balls (mochi), deep-fried sweet potatoes, dipped in syrup, and many other greasy, satisfying goodies.

The mochi were rich, but tasty, filled with red bean paste inside, and coated with sesame seeds on the outside. The fresh fruit was expensive but, as you can see from the picture, fun to try. If you were ok with mouldy fruit, you could get a whole shopping bag of persimmons for ¥500. As unappetising as that sounds, naturally dried and preserved fruit (left in the ‘shadows’ for micro-organisms to do their work) is popular here, and once you get past the thought that you’re munching mould, it’s delicious!

To all the other Tigers out there, or toshi-hito, akemashite omedetou gozaimasu. May your year be filled with dragon fruit, healthy mould and mochi!

Next time: Overnight buses and hostile hostels, vegan-style.

Seoul Power

… the journal of a South African vegan in Japan (errr, Korea), by Carey Finn

23 February 2010

One of the biggest advantages to living in Japan is the travel opportunities you have. The main island of Honshu, in particular, is a springboard to the rest of Asia. A flight to South Korea takes just 1 hour and 24 minutes – it’s like flying from Jo’burg to Durban. Travel agents sometimes offer special deals, and after 5 months of stalking them, I was able to get a cheap ticket to Seoul.

So, at the end of January, I popped over for a weekend. One of my best friends from varsity has been teaching English in South Korea for the past few years, and I was excited to see him again. Of course, I was equally excited to try the local food. Being a whiz in the kitchen, the said friend fattened me up on curries, flatbreads, crumbed tofu and low GI fridge tart – all of which was delicious, if a little deadly. We eventually made it out of the kitchen so that I could take in some of the tourist sites, and try some Korean cooking.

Our first pit stop was at a bakery; unfortunately selling neither verifiably vegan nor yummy goods. The breads and pastries were much like the ones in Japan; either cake-like or plastic-like, or a combination of the two. Lunch, luckily, was much more successful. We went to a great vegetarian restaurant that was tucked away down an alley in the shopping district of Insa-dong. The restaurant had a big menu, and about 80% of the dishes were vegan.

We sat at a low table and ordered several dishes, with the local custom being to share food. A pot of mushroom, veggie and soya-meat shabu-shabu (a Japanese stew-type of thing, where you cook the ingredients yourself), a plate of samoosa-type pastries, filled with fiery fake meat, and a platter of soya steak slices were brought to the table. The main dishes were accompanied by lots of little bowls of dipping sauces, salads and kimchi. Almost everything was hot enough to make even a Mexican blush. The kimchi, Korea’s unofficial national dish, was cabbage that had been prepared with perhaps a kg of chillies. It was tasty, but coming from the much subtler (some say, bland) tastes of Japan, I couldn’t handle it. Luckily for my lips, not all of the dishes contained chilli.

Our leisurely lunch was filling, lots of fun and cheap too. Travelling to South Korea on the Yen is like travelling to … well, somewhere the Rand is strong. Mozambique maybe?

While travelling around and doing sightseeing, I snacked on walnut and soya blend drinks (delicious) and sweet potato soya puddings from the convenience stores, as well as the odd caffeinated beverage from …cringe … Starbucks. The city is as Americanised as Osaka, and all of the usual suspects were present – Krispy Kreeme, Baskin Robbins, etc.

On my last day in Seoul, we had lunch at a vibey Mexican restaurant in the foreign part of the city. My friend and I shared giant refried beans and potato burritos, which went down a treat. Not exactly traditional Korean food, but a good vegetarian option. Much of the food sold at the street stalls and mainstream restaurants contains cow, fish or other animal parts, making it difficult to just drop by a fun-looking place for a meal.

I must have gained at least 3 kg over the weekend, and I fear that if I lived there, I would be the size of a blimp within 6 months. But luckily I am in Japan, for now. ^_^

Next time: Edible plum blossoms, Chinese New Year treats and more.