Vegan Tales from Japan

O-kaeri! Special South African Edition

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

28 August 2010

In mid-July, I was lucky enough to come home to Cape Town for 3 weeks. Although the World Cup had wound down a week before I arrived, there was still a buzz in the air, and restaurants hadn’t changed their prices back to something locals could afford (not sure if they even plan to).

Having been away for a year, there were 2 things I really, really wanted to do in the Mother City: see ‘my’ animals, and eat. I’ll spare you the soppy details of the former, and just blog about the eating part.

I won’t write about how I forked out R33 for a hot chocolate with soya milk at a certain establishment in Rondebosch (*cough cough*, Cocoa Wah Wah). Paying R7 for a soy option there was nearly as horrifying as Kauai’s newly ‘reformed’ menu, replete with 1 vegan option. Talk about token. Thank goodness for the 2 great new vegan restaurants that have opened.

Closer

This bright, funky little spot officially opened at the beginning of August, but I was able to sneak in my o-kaeri (‘welcome back’) lunch party in July. Michelle Verwey and her team served up baskets of warm breads, pita and dips as a starter, following that with home-made root vegetable soup and more delicious breads. There were lemon cupcakes for dessert but, by that stage, most people had stuffed themselves into a coma-like state – which just meant more for me!

Closer is on Palmer Road in Muizenberg, in between other small, cool shops. The area has an ‘Obsy’ feel to it. The café does great (fair-trade) coffees and teas, not to mention cakes – and a bunch of meals. Warm oats with almonds and maple syrup for breakfast sound good? I thought so. Check the place out on Facebook and in real life, too.

Bella Vegan

If you’re in Simonstown, I recommend stopping by Bella Vegan. It’s just opposite the tourist info centre on the main road, and has lumo green walls – you can’t miss it. Jen and her team serve up dirt-cheap, delicious chow (I don’t think anything on their menu was as much as that traumatic hot chocolate I mentioned earlier). I tried a papaya smoothie, which was a really happy-looking drink, and surprisingly filling! Of course, I also tried several other things too, including a sweet potato pie (with salad) and savoury pancakes.

The main meals and desserts change daily. You may be lucky enough to tuck into a slice of double cinnamon and apple pie or a double chocolate cupcake, both served with cream, depending on which day you pop in. I say play it safe and pop in every day … Except Mondays, when they’re closed.

Now, I’m back in the land of the rising, blazing, unbearable sun … already missing the cool weather and all the vegan goodies you can get in Cape Town. Cheese … jelly tots … sniff. Not to mention the soya milk tart at Wellness Warehouse – go try it so that they keep making it and I can eat it again next year August!

Next time: A perilous quest for vegan donuts in weather that curdles even long-life soya milk.

Brown rice harmony

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

15 July 2010

As usual, it’s been a while since I’ve posted an update on my adventures in Japan. You probably suspected I’d OD’ed on the condensed milk – and I won’t lie, it was close – but I survived to wrap up Year 1 in Osaka.

This past month, a lot has happened. First, the rainy season arrived, then my veggie garden threatened to float away. The humidity levels passed 100%. I stopped functioning during the day and only managed to make it to school by strapping an electric fan to my left foot and dragging it along behind me.

In actual vegan news, I visited a lovely little restaurant in Minamikata, a couple of stations north of Osaka City. The place is called Genmai Harmony, which means Brown Rice Harmony. It’s a stone’s throw from the train station, which is very convenient, but there’s very little English, which is not so convenient! However, we managed to order the house veggie curry, which was served with a couple of salads and a variation of miso soup. We felt all harmonic until we found out that the cakes were sold out, but a cup of genki (‘energy’) tea restored the mood. I couldn’t decipher exactly what was in it, but I suspect ginger and a variety of Chinese herbs. On the way out, we picked up an order form for organic veggies, which are grown on a nearby-ish farm, by the owner’s connections.

Raku’s rebirth

As you know, my favourite vegan restaurant in Osaka closed down in May. The owner, Sano-san, has been working at his friend’s new restaurant (not veggie) in south Osaka, and has started reopening Raku there on Saturday evenings. He’s held 2 ‘bossa nova’ gigs so far, serving up his trademark Brazilian fejwada, curry, salad and a new addition of falafel with deep-friend wheat meat. The restaurant is bigger than the old premises and has draft beer on tap – a leftover from the place’s izakaya (‘pub’) days. So far the support has been good so, provided that his next few gigs are successful, he is planning to open Raku 2.0 more regularly, from September.

Curry in Den-Den Town

Meanwhile, short of decent veggie places in convenient locations, my posse have had to find alternative grub joints to meet up. Sano-san showed me an Indian restaurant in Nipponbashi, the Akihibara area of Osaka. It’s known for its maid cafes, toy stores, electronic stores, porn and strangely-clad characters. Just past a horrific pet shop (which I have been complaining about for an entire year, with little response), is a curry place run by real Indians. Usually, curry in Japan resembles curry, but that’s where the similarities end. But this stuff is the real deal, with even the ‘mild’ powerful enough to make grown men cry.

While not a vegetarian restaurant, they offer a lot of veggie dishes, which can easily be made vegan. Good prices, hot spices and gigantic nans have made me a fan of their dinner sets – samoosas, salad, a big plate of curry (I recommend the “green peace” one) and nan, plus chai tea to settle your stomach. They show Indian hip-hop videos and they sell Bollywood movies. What more could you want?

Next time: Carey goes home: a special South African edition!

Heaven is a can of condensed milk

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

22 June 2010

2 exciting things happened recently. One was the discovery of a great veggie café in Kyoto. The other was the arrival of a box of indulgence from Vegan Perfection. But if I open that up now, you won’t get through the whole blog, you’ll be tracking me down to raid my cupboards! So, first things first…

Ping Pang!

Ping Pang Café is a neo-hippie restaurant in Kyoto’s Kitayama area. We stumbled upon it while taking 2 tiny kittens to their new home. I blogged about the heartbreaking number of stray cats and dogs in Japan earlier; unfortunately, the situation hasn’t gotten any better since then. Japan Cat Network tries to trap, neuter and release, or home, as many cats as they can. But their task is a mammoth one, so we’ve started helping them out by fostering a few kittens. Their shelter also has limited space, so they are always looking for people who can take kitties temporarily.

Anyway, we were taking Atticus and Lizzie to their new home, when we happened to pass Ping Pang. It was open and smelled inviting so, after dropping off the kittens, we popped in for a bite to eat. The menu was vegan with the exception of a token free-range chicken ‘taco’. The food is all very wholesome. The restaurant is part of an ‘outdoor fitness’ studio where you can do yoga and trail-type training, so it has that fit and healthy vibe about it.

I ordered a brown rice burger, which was interesting. The ‘bun’ was made of, yep, you guessed it, compacted rice, and the filling was sliced organic veggies. I washed it down with a glass of masala ginger beer, which I highly recommend you try at home. Dessert was 2 kinds of cake and ice cream, the latter of which was meant to be shared … so much for that! My vegan sidekicks are sneaky sometimes. At least I got a photograph.

Ping Pang isn’t cheap, and the stools and tables are high enough that death by chocolate mousse takes on a whole new meaning, but it’s a nice little spot that I would definitely visit again.

Perfectly vegan

How many of you miss condensed milk? Well, I sure did, until 5 tins arrived last week. It’s been 5 years since that sweet, gooey goodness (also known as "diabetes in a can") passed my lips. 5 long, lonely years …

But now, thanks to Australian vegan goodies distributor Vegan Perfection, the exile is over. They sell a range of vegan sweets and other essentials, importing from all over the world. They mostly distribute to Ozzies, but if you ask them nicely, they’ll ship to you – maybe even to SA. They shipped a small box over to Japan for us, which was super-exciting … except that the postage cost more than the goodies. Obviously, they couldn’t ship veggie meats or cheeses, but condensed milk was good enough.

I drank half of the first holy tin, and then attempted to make peanut butter fudge with the rest. It ended up being peanut butter sludge, but it still tasted good. So what else was in the box? There were (note, were) wine gums, fudge, dark chocolate nougat, organic mint chocolate, rice milk white chocolate (WHITE CHOCOLATE!), parmesan cheese and packs of soya whipping cream. The downside is that, since the products originated in South America, Europe and England, the box’s carbon footprint was sky-high. But since I am now too broke to go anywhere for the rest of the month, I will be staying in and fattening myself up on sugary goodness, so hopefully it will all balance out.

Next time: Raku 2.0, brown rice harmony, curry in Animeland and more.

Comings and goings

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

2 June 2010

I really miss the vegan potlucks in Cape Town. All that good grub and company does wonders to one’s mood and stomach! It’s been more than a year since I attended a potluck so when the opportunity arose to go to a Japanese version, I leapt at it.

On Sunday 23rd May, the Kansai Vegan Meetup Group held a late spring lunch in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture. To translate, that’s about an hour by train from Osaka. We gathered at a lovely little cafe called Hassel House, which was all old, dark wood, fresh garden herbs and huge canvases of Irish landscapes. The sweet old Japanese owner spoke fluent English and told us that not only had she painted the artworks in the cafe, but that she would soon be returning to Ireland in search of new scenery to portray.

About 10 people attended, half of them foreigners and half Japanese. A vegetarian dog was revealed to be the official leader of the meet-up group, but she seemed more interested in the food than her administrative duties. I didn’t blame her, the food was great. We all shared a finger lunch of homegrown greens, fresh peas, potatoes, veggie fish fingers, crackers, fruit and red bean paste tea sweets, with minty herbal tea. Although it was pouring with rain outside, the atmosphere inside was warm and relaxing.

This Saturday past saw me at another vegan gathering, but sadly, this one was a sayounara party for Raku Café (downtown Osaka). In the past 10 months, I’ve become good friends with the owner, Sano-san, and spent many evenings chatting to him in the cosy little vegan organic restaurant. Unfortunately, like many veggie restaurants in Osaka, Raku’s finances went into the red, and Sano-san was forced to close his doors. But he did so with a bang. Word was spread, and the little café was filled to capacity, with not a stool left open on Saturday evening.

There were some old and some new faces but we all toasted to the good memories and to Sano-san’s future. He had some good news, informing us that Raku would be reopening in a different area (Shin-Imamiya) towards the end of June. However, as Sano-san will be sharing premises, Raku will only be open on weekend nights for the time being. But, as everyone agreed, it’s an exciting new start. Little by little，or chotto zutsu, as they say here.

The last supper at Raku was a buffet of organic salad, Brazilian fejwada, curry and brown rice, with tofu cheesecake, chocolate brownies and ginger snaps for dessert. Everyone helped clear out the remaining juice, organic German ales and spirits in the place, and the party went on till past 11. Laugh not, that’s quite something by Japanese standards, considering the trains stop running at midnight.

Next time: Ping-pang discovery! What is it? Find out in Entry #18.

Vegan birthdays are best

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

24 May 2010

Every part of Japan is famous for something – be it peanuts, potatoes, a 120m Buddha statue, or wild pig (the dead kind). Osaka is no exception, with travellers from all over trying takoyaki (deep-fried octopus dumplings) and okonomiyaki (a type of omelette made by pouring batter over small pieces of vegetables, cow, pig and fish).

Both of these delicacies of death are sold on almost every street corner in the city, and they are especially popular at festivals. You can even make your own okonomiyaki at special restaurants. I just figured that was one aspect of Japanese culture that I’d never experience. But then, my Japanese friends had a special dinner party for my birthday.

The starters were homemade pickled bamboo (a spring dish) and gyouza (those Chinese dumplings I mentioned), both of which were delicious. And the main course was vegan okonomiyaki – cooked at the table! My Japanese friends, being vegan residents of Osaka, were able to skillet a special variation of the dish. They used fleshy mushrooms instead of bacon, and mixed them up with various veggies for the filling. Instead of using fish flakes and sauce to finish the dish, they topped it with special vegan dashi (a stock usually made from fish and found in almost everything), a sticky sauce and mayonnaise. It was love at first bite, the rich, warm taste was simply heaven. It was great to have something fatty and solid, instead of simply noodles in broth、or rice-based dishes for a change; so great, in fact, that I ate 5 helpings.

As a birthday gift, they gave me a few vegan snacks including a tub of Tofutti cream cheese from America (bought on a business trip). I remember reading about Tofutti in Peta’s magazines as a teenager, and always wished they would bring it over to South Africa. So I was pretty excited to have the chance to try it at last. It turned out to be a nice and smooth cream cheese that gave life to the plastic cake bread over here. It was a treat, but overall, compared to Sheese, it ranks about the same in taste and texture.

A little while after the Tofutti was finished (around the beginning of May), there was a vegan festival in Kyoto. Last year, I checked out a vegetarian festival there which was 90% vegan anyway. But this one was fully, and officially, 100% vegan. Alas, I did not attend, as I was on a road trip north, to Ibaraki-ken (home to that 120m Buddha statue, by the way), but I heard good reports from those who went. It’s great to know that there is enough support for these events to stage them.

While I didn’t get to try all the tasty food at the festival, I did find a great vegan restaurant in Ibaraki’s Tsukuba City, a university town in the middle of nowhere. Ritz’n, the restaurant, is open on every public holiday, which is excellent! Many other restaurants were closed for the duration of Golden Week, Japan’s week of national holidays (the period over which I did the road trip).

At Ritz’n, I had yummy tempeh burgers on homemade rolls, several wholesome lunch sets comprising organic brown rice, soups, nattou pasta, stewed gluten meat and salads, muffins for snacks, and a small slice of dark chocolate gateaux. The pasta was surprisingly tasty – nattou, the slimy fermented soy beans I blogged about at the beginning of my Japan adventures, actually went really well in the pasta sauce. Maybe it was because it was organic and homemade, but there was none of the usual slimy, snotty texture, just a nice smoky taste. Anyway, I went to Ritz’n rather a lot.

At the adjacent deli, I was able to find up a bag of fresh dates and I literally danced for joy. In the 10 months I have been in Japan, I had had the grand total of ONE date. So being able to munch through an entire bag was an almost religious experience. It brought tears to my eyes. Next time you fill up a bag of medjool dates at Fruit and Veg, don’t take a single one of them for granted! Think of all the deprived vegans in other parts of the world (i.e. Japan) and how much money you could make by sending them to us! (Message me for my postal address).

Next time: A vegan gathering, and Raku Café: death and rebirth.

A ♥ Kyoto

… the (long-overdue) journal of a South African vegan in Japan by Carey Finn

29 April 2010

The first Sunday of April saw us taking a leisurely stroll along a small stream in Kyoto. We pottered and pondered along a trail aptly named The Philosopher’s Walk, appreciating the cherry blossoms, then in full bloom, their reflection on the water, and all of the finer points in life … along with about a million other pushing and prodding people.

The Philosopher’s Walk, with its hundreds of big old ornamental sakura trees, is, as it turns out, one of the most popular spots for cherry blossom viewing in Kyoto. Which also makes it one of the most stressful parts to navigate at that time of year. Fortunately, we were prepared for the crowds.

Our resident expert on all things vegan in Japan, a video game design student/cat trapper/secret agent (did I not promise mystery in my last entry?), had taken us first to a café by the name of Akateletecobe Sovesahva (which was apparently the name made up by their kid).

My first impression of the restaurant, with its wooden table and small flower garden, (complete with family set of gumboots) was that it was very homely. I remarked as much to said expert, who wryly informed me that the café, was in fact, a home. The family open their house on the first Sunday of the month, serving whatever dishes they fancy. This time, they made delicious vegan pizza, with home-made animal-free cheese. Seriously. It was tough, but I resisted the temptation to raid the kitchen of all said pizza, and after just 2 slices, allowed myself to be guided to the next stop on our tour.

Our next destination, just 10 minutes away, was Café Proverbs. I’d already eaten there once before, shortly after arriving in Japan. I was well ready for Round 2. For starters, we shared some gyoza (Chinese dumpling things) and then waited impatiently for the mains to arrive. My choice was soymilk ramen, and it provided a near spiritual experience (I suspect that’s why they named the café as they did).

This was my first time eating ramen (traditional thick noodles) in Japan, as most ramen soup contains cow extract or other not-so-delightful additions that render it un-veggie friendly. The addition of soymilk to ramen is apparently a Café Proverb specialty – a bestseller at both their Tokyo and Kyoto restaurants. As unusual as it sounds, the combination of milk and ramen results in a creamy soup of noodles, to which they add some tofu and shiitake mushrooms for good measure. If you’re ever in Kyoto, I highly recommend it. For dessert, I ordered dark chocolate and maple syrup cake. Enough said, I think.

After our double warm-up, we were ready to walk. And walk we did – all the way along the Philosopher’s Walk, until enough room had been made for that most civilised of British traditions, afternoon tea. At that point, we veered off to a place called Kairas; a rustic café with a heavy wooden interior and sophisticated but hippy vibe that would work well as a country farm stall. Here, there was soya hot chocolate, cookies, custard cone treats (with smiley face biscuits) and … parfait to be had. Real parfait. The stuff of my dreams. Except with bitter citrus called buntan. Which was not so good. But the ice cream and biscuit parts were awesome.

With all that said (and eaten), I’m sure I don’t need to explain further why it is that I ♥ Kyoto.

Next time: Osakan okonomiyaki, Tofutti and a vegan festival.

A taste of Tokyo

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

4 April 2010

Spring break has been and gone; with snow, cherry blossoms and a whole lot of sweets. A friend has been visiting from South Africa, so we’ve been travelling around like crazy, trying to squeeze in as much of the Kansai region as possible. While the Japanese teachers took a whopping 3 days off school, I managed to wrangle an entire week (shock), giving us enough time to check out some early blossoms in the mountains of southern Nara, give free hugs to random people in Kobe, and take in a whirlwind tour of Tokyo.

As a vegan, no matter the route you’re travelling, eating on the road is never easy. Here, your dinner options are generally limited to rice balls, plain rice, or rice crackers. So we usually prepare a couple of ‘Ziplock’ boxes of sandwiches and such to take with, but they don’t last more than a day – either getting eaten, or going off.

Luckily, to celebrate sakura season, shops around Japan are selling cherry blossom snacks, ranging from gooey tea sweets (made with kanten, which we know as agar) to deep-fried cherry blossom-flavoured rice cakes and more. So, this time, while we may have put ourselves at risk of diabetes, road tripping was a lot more satisfying than usual.

While our experience driving around Japan was sugary and slightly scary, eating in Tokyo was like entering a vegan fantasy world – from our base in Shinjuku, there were 5 fully vegan restaurants within 20 minutes’ walk! When we had lunch in Shibuya, we had a choice of more than 7 places to chow down.

In the shock of it all, I left my Vegan Restaurant Pocket Guide in my bag, in a coin locker … and could only remember one of the restaurants … making our choice easy. We ate at Brown Rice Café, a trendy little whole food spot in the larney Omotesando Hills area (near Harajuku and all its costumed characters). It had a sophisticated atmosphere, and prices to match, but the food was simple and delicious. We had vegetable soup and freshly-baked soya milk rolls, and a cherry blossom and green tea muffin from the adjacent deli for dessert.

For dinner, a friend took us to a fast food joint called Freshness Burger, which had 2 veggie options on its menu – a tofu burger, and a giant mushroom burger. Both were under 500 Yen, which is unheard of for grub in Japan, unless you’re eating at McDonalds. I tried the tofu burger, with potato wedges, and it went down a treat. My only complaint is that it was a bit on the small side – so next time I’ll be ordering 2. I found out that there is another Freshness Burger just 2 stations away from my pad in Osaka, so I’ll be dropping by soon.

Visits from friends and travels aside, the most exciting thing that has happened to me in the past month was a present I received from a Japanese friend. He and his wife are awesome vegan punks. He recently went to America on a business trip, and brought back Vegan Fudge Brownies and Apple Streudel for me as souvenirs. They were decadently delicious … so much so that they brought tears to my eyes. I ate them too fast to take a picture, but the packing looked like this.

All I can say is … to all the vegans in America; you lucky bastards.

Next time: Something mysterious to spice things up.

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.

Teetering around Tottori

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

2 February 2010

Since Japan is colder than Sheldon’s vegan ice-cream right now, I’ve been reluctant to do anything other than eat and sleep. Why humans don’t hibernate in winter, I’ll never understand. But in a feat of superhuman effort and much cursing, I dragged myself away from the heater and took a bus to Tottori prefecture to try some snowboarding.

It doesn’t snow in Osaka, except for the odd flurry of tiny white flakes, which melt on contact with the ground. So if you want to see the real deal, you have to head out of town. The nearest ski resorts are in Hyogo, Tottori and Gifu. Hyogo is the closest, but we have connections in Tottori.

A 3-hour bus ride later, one of these connections collected us at the station, and showed us around her town. Dressed in a (farm) stylish snowsuit and gumboots, I excitedly crunched through the snow on the pavement, made a snowman in a parking lot and lobbed snowballs at my sidekick.

Tottori is a fairly small town, with very few (possibly zero) vegetarian restaurants, but luckily there is at least one Indian restaurant. So for supper, we chowed down on vegetable curry and rice. The curry was warm and tasty, if a bit watery. It was also reasonably priced, at about 1000 Yen (don’t convert back to Rands if you don’t want a shock). There is a franchise of these Indian restaurants in Japan, but this was the first time I’d been to one. They’re a good choice if there are no all-vegetarian restaurants around. It’s a lot better than stuffing yourself with convenience store rice balls.

The next day, we took a 2-carriage ‘local’ (that means very slow) train to Yonago, a rural area on the other side of the prefecture. We spent the afternoon on the slopes of Mount Daisen, a famous skiing spot in the area. I used the plural, ’slopes’, but in truth we didn’t get past the beginners’ slope. Still, we had a lot of fun, and were able to stand and navigate most of the way down the almost-level incline, by the end of the day.

Ravenous after all that slipping and sliding, our Yonago connection took us to a great vegetarian restaurant for dinner. It’s called ‘Hibi no Kate’, and is run by a lady with pink hair, who calls herself ‘Honey’ (although only to foreigners).

The restaurant is labelled as vegetarian, but we couldn’t find a non-vegan dish on the menu. The ‘egg omelettes’ were actually tofu, and all of the sauces used soya milk. The desserts were all vegan too. For dinner, I tucked into a veggie burger, which was served with the tofu omelette stuff, salad, miso soup and rice. It was filling, but luckily I have a second stomach just for desserts, so I managed to squeeze in the chocolate cake and green tea ice cream in the picture, too.

We tried to convince Honey to move her restaurant to Osaka, but the Yonago connection, a vegetarian herself, objected. When she leaves Japan though … the trucks will be ready.

Next time: Seoul food. A weekend in South Korea.