Vegetarian breakfast at MOS BURGER

Last month, I went to IKEA in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture to eat their newly released veggie dog. Unfortunately, such a menu item can be hardly found in restaurants in Hamamatsu, but I suddenly remembered soy patty burgers in MOS BURGER yesterday. It’s a Japanese hamburger chain founded in 1972. When I was a child and still ate meat, I liked their hamburgers very much. I thought they were well made and tasted better than hamburgers in other fast food restaurants, though customers had to wait for a while after placing an order.

MOS BURGER has a website with their menu items and information on ingredients. The soy patty is mainly made from soy protein and has less calories than the meat patty. They emphasize their customers’ health while IKEA tries to be more environmentally friendly with their veggie dog. Anyway, MOS BURGER did a good job. Now they have eight kinds of soy patty burgers in their regular menu. Among them, two of them (Soy Patty Hamburger, Soy Patty Cheeseburger) are lacto-ovo vegetarian. Other six burgers contain some meat (maybe in the sauce). Unfortunately, there is no vegan option, but it is far better than other hamburger chains where vegetarians can eat only side menu items such as French fries and an apple pie.

I have had Soy Patty Hamburger once, but I found it too simple. In their morning menu (until 10:30), they have other kinds of vegetarian burgers: Soy Patty Yasai Burger and Soy Patty Yasai Cheeseburger. This morning, I had a set of Soy Patty Yasai Burger with a drink (\480). I chose 100% orange juice and also ordered Onion Potato. I got number 22 and waited.

About 10 minutes later, I had all the three items served at the table. This is Soy Patty Yasai Burger. I didn’t like the flavor of soy protein vey much, however, there were also lettuce, tomato, and onion, and both mayonnaise and ketchup were used for seasoning. It wasn’t bad.

Frankly speaking, I preferred these French fries and onion rings. I always like freshly fried food, and both potato and onion had slight natural sweetness. 100% orange juice was also naturally sweet and good.

The inside of the shop was cozy. There were men and women of all ages. Personally, I feel more comfortable in such a casual place than in some vegetarian restaurants I visited before in big cities whose customers were mainly women. Vegetarian dishes should be affordable and substantial for all kinds of people. MOS BURGER has more than 1300 shops in Japan. You can see their menu in English, Chinese, and Korean if you search with “mos burger global.” Shop information is provided in Japanese only.

MOS BURGER Hamamatsu Zaza City
Address: 100-1 Kaji-machi, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka
Tel: 053-413-5231
Open hours: 7:00 - 23:00
Access: 8-minute walk from JR Hamamatsu Station

Tokoroten – Agar jelly noodles

The rainy season is over! Last night, we had a thunderstorm, but it was the last rain of the season. Today, it was fine all day, and I was glad to see a blue sky when I went out during the lunch break.

In Entetsu Department Store, I found a stand of Daishin, a shop selling tokoroten or agar jelly noodles. The sales clerk let me taste a little. Though tokoroten is common snack and available in any supermarket, I found it harder than any other tokoroten I had eaten before. He explained that was because they use high-quality agar weeds from Western Izu. Izu is a peninsula located in eastern Shizuoka Prefecture and famous for its hot springs and many sightseeing spots.

On the stand there was a large block of agar jelly, from which tokoroten was made. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to take a picture, but the sales clerk handed me the last packed fresh tokoroten when I wanted to buy one pack. It was intended for two people, and two packs of sauce were also included.

The sauce for tokoroten varies depending on regions. This sauce was made mainly from soy source, sugar, and vinegar, which is common in Central Japan. I remembered that I had green citrus fruits hebesu in the refrigerator, so I made sauce by myself with juice of one hebesu and a tablespoon of soy sauce. For topping of tokoroten, laver and white sesame are often used. As I didn’t have plain laver, I added laver from Korea flavored with corn oil and olive oil. As for sesame, I had ground black sesame, but I didn’t think it was suitable for tokoroten.

This tokoroten was thick and filling. According to the website of Daishin, their tokoroten is so firm that you can make a knot with it. It’s remarkable. Though the sauce didn’t have anything special, I enjoyed the unusual firmness of tokoroten. It was indeed a good product!

In some parts of Japan, especially Kansai District, they eat tokoroten with dark molassess. I also found on the Internet that tokoroten can be used for salad with tomato, cucumbers, etc. I’d like to eat it with kimchi, but where can I find vegan kimchi? Unfortunately, all the kimchi sold in supermarkets contains some kind of seafood.

Smoothie with peaches

Hamamatsu is one of the sunniest cities in Japan. Last year, it received 2,362.6 hours of sunlight in total. This year, however, we have an extraordinarily long rainy season that started at the end of June and will be end around July 23. According to a local newspaper, the total hours of sunlight in Hamamatsu from June 27 to July 16 is 32.1 hours, which is only 33% of an ordinary year. As I’m not used to such weather, I’ve got tired and really want to see sunshine.

Yesterday, I was in my favorite beauty parlor. At this time of year, they treat their customers a glass of shiso or Japanese basil juice. I got it, too, and found it very refreshing. I felt like making something good by myself to feel better. So, I went to supermarkets today to look for ingredients.

In Japan, some kinds of fruits are too expensive to buy frequently. However, it often happens that overripe fruits are sold at a reduced price. In MayOne in the station building,  I got a pack of four peaches from Yamanashi Prefecture at a good bargain though they looked just normal.

I intended to make smoothie by blending fruits and vegetables. I also prepared a ripen banana, one half of pak choi, and three green shiso leaves.

In addition to these, I had a citrus fruit called “hebesu” from Miyazaki Prefecture in Kyushu. I had never heard about it before, but it seemed to be used for dressing and cooking.

I peeled the skins of peaches and banana, cut all the ingredients, except for hebesu, into piece to put in the blender. Then I added the juice of hebesu and 200 cc of water and blended all. The smoothie looked like this.

The taste of it was difficult to explain. It had sweetness, sourness, freshness of green vegetables, a little thickness, etc. It was good anyway. The smoothie was about 1 liter. Later, I came to think It would have been better to make agar jelly with a half of smoothie. I has still two peaches, so I can try some other thing.

Pain 2 Olives of Paul

Paul is a French bakery chain that has many shops also in Japan. The nearest shop from Hamamatsu may be the one in Kyoto, more than 220 km away. However, they sometimes have a temporary stand in the basement of Entetsu Department Store. It seems that they don’t have any vegan sandwiches or pastries, but they have at least two kinds of vegan bread: Ancien Paul and Pain 2 Olives. Several days ago, I bought them home.

The left one is Ancien Paul baked in a traditional way. It was soft and had easy-to-eat taste. The right one is my favorite Pain 2 Olives. It contains slices of both black and green olives. I love the salty taste and rich flavor of olives.

Paul's products are more expensive than those in ordinary Japanese bakeries. However, it is diffiult to find bread like Pain 2 Olives in elsewhere. If I have a chance to visit big cities, I’d like to visit a permanent shop of Paul. As seen on their plastic bag, it is an old bakery founded in 1889. I’m curious to see the interior of their shops that is said to be the same as that in France.

Bitter melon curtain for shade

At this time of year, my uncle and aunt have a bitter melon curtain growing in front of their living room. As the room faces south, it serves as a shade when it is sunny. This year, the plants have grown high. From outside, the inside of the house can be hardly seen because of this green curtain. From the living room, however, you can see outside well. When I visited them last Sunday, there were some bitter melons that were already big enough to eat.

They gave me one of them. Since a bitter melon can be very bitter, I had seldom used them for cooking.

From my cookbook of curry, I found a recipe of bitter melon coconut curry. The main ingredients were bitter melon, tomato, onion, and coconut milk.

I made it as follows. It was a bit different from the book. To make curry, I usually use a wok.
1. Remove the seeds from the bitter melon and cut it into slices. Cut the onion into slices and chop the tomato into chunks.
2. Put sesame oil and some cumin seeds in the wok and heat them over low heat until bubbles appear.
3. Put the bitter melon and the onion in the wok and cook them for several minutes.
4. Add the tomato and a little water, put the lid on the wok, and heat until the tomato becomes mushy.
5. Add 100 cc coconut milk, a pinch of salt, coriander powder, chili powder, turmeric, and some water and cook with the lid (I cooked about 10 minutes).

When I make curry, I’m not very exact about the amounts of spices. They are somewhere between 1 tablespoon and 1/4 tablespoon. But I put chili powder much less than other spices. The curry looked like this.

I made curry with bitter melon for the first time. The bitter melon was bitter, but not too bitter. It was also mild because of the coconut milk. It was a good combination.

Bitter melon has been winning popularity in recent years. It is called “goya”, which comes from the dialect in Okinawa, a subtropical island prefecture. Bitter melon is one of their representative vegetables, and they have a very famous local dish called “goya champuru.” According to recipes on the Internet, it seems to be a stir fry dish and is usually made from bitter melon, pork, tofu, and egg. To make a vegan version, I prepared bitter melon, deep-fried tofu, tofu, and yam (grated later).

I made it as follows.
1. Drain the tofu and cut it into small pieces.
2. Cut the bitter melon into slices (after removing the seeds) and the deep-fried tofu into small pieces.
3. Grate the yam and add turmeric to it (substitute for an egg).
4. Cook the bitter melon, deep-fried tofu, and tofu in the wok with sesame oil for several minutes and add soy sauce.
5. Add the yam to the ingredients in 4, mix well, put the lid on the wok, and cook for a few minutes.
The vegan version looked like this. I wondered if it could be called goya champuru. Ordinary goya champuru seemed to have bonito flakes on top, but I didn’t add anything.

As with the curry, the bitter melon wasn’t too bitter. But I thought I should have added some other seasoning as well. Later, I learned that champuru means mixture, and you can mix what you like. Maybe I’ll mix tomato sauce next time.

Bon festival - Homecoming of ancestors

Today I visited my uncle’s house. He is my mother’s brother and has a family Buddhist alter in his house. As the eldest son of my deceased grandparents, he and my aunt have had several kinds of Buddhist rituals in many years. Now they have Bon Festival when the spirits of our ancestors return home. Yesterday evening they burned the welcome fire at the entrance of their house by using wooden pieces like this and a plate. They are sold in every supermarket at this time of year. In some parts of Hamamatsu and some other regions in Japan, they have Bon Festival in August (old Bon). Many Japanese compmanies have their summer holidays when this old Bon is held.

When I visit them, I always make a prayer in front of the alter. This time, some paper strips of the names of the Five Tathagata received from the temple they belong to were hung from the top. And there was a cow made from an eggplant on the alter.

The cow is intended to carry our ancestors on its back. The eggplant had a longer calyx than ordinary ones; it was sold separately to be used just for this purpose. The cow had foxtail for the tail, azuki beans for the eyes, and nandina leaves for the ears. The legs and the horns were made of splittable wooden chopsticks. It had also a saddle made by my uncle who is skillful with his hands and likes a playful touch. It is unusual for an eggplant cow to have a saddle. It was well made. In front of the cow, there was a little plate with tofu, rice and thin white noodles set by my aunt. She said that the food to be placed on the alter must be vegetarian.

They said that they would go to Kamoeji Temple, a big temple near the downtown. There they will burn a fire again to send the spirits of our ancestors back to the afterlife. I hope it will be fine tomorrow. Though it is the middle of July, we still have a rainy season, which is rather unusual.

Cooking with corn on the cob

Last month, I participated in Sawayaka Walking in Mori-machi and bought some corn on the cob. They are suitable to eat as they are without boiling or grilling, but I tried to use them for cooking. Corn soup may be one of the most popular and easiest dishes to make. I made it with just four ingredients: one ear of corn on the cob, 300 ml of soymilk, a pinch of salt, and some dried parsley.

The recipe was like this.
1. Scrape the kernels from the cob.
2. Put the kernels, cob, soymilk, and salt in a pot and heat for a while.
3. Cool down the soup and then remove the cob.
4. Blend the soup in the blender.
5. Pour the soup into a dish and sprinkle dried parsley.

As I wrote last month, corn on the cob from Mori-machi is very sweet. The soup was still very sweet thought soymilk was added. Since I was hungry, I ate the soup at it was. But cold corn soup might have also tasted good.

I tried another easy recipe with one half of corn on the cob. As I had edamame or green soybeans in the refrigerator, I used them, too.

I cooked a cup of rice with the kernels scraped from the cob and salt. As with the corn soup, I put the cob in the pot to draw out its taste. The pot I use to cook rice is called donabe or earthenware pot. With another pot, I prepared edamame in the following procedure.
1. Cut the both ends of each edamame.
2. Put edamame into boiling water and boil for about 5 minutes with a pinch of salt.
3. Drain the water and take out the beans from the pods.

When the rice was ready, I removed the cob and blended edamame into it. The rice looked like this.

It needed more flavor, so I added some soy sauce. It might have been better if there had been sake to add in the rice. Edamame is often eaten with beer in summer. Unfortunately, I can’t drink alcohol at all.

Yukata exhibition in Soramo

This weekend, there was an exhibition of Yukata in Soramo, the space between the two buildings of Entetsu Department Store. Yukata is a casual type of kimono worn in mainly in summer. You can see many young women in yukata in events like fireworks festivals. Hamamatsu is one of the three major production areas of Yukata. The other two are Tokyo and Osaka. This exhibition is a promotion event held by Fabric Association of Shizuoka and other organizations.

They presented newly designed yukata dyed with a technique called chusen that is unique to Hamamatsu.

They seemed to have a popularity contest. The right one was gaining many seals.

This one looked cool.

These are fabric for kimono. The patterns with cats and carps were pretty.

These are traditional clothing called jinbei worn by men. They are not as colorful as yukata but seem to be comfortable to wear. Jinbei is one of the most popular presents on Father’s Day.

This is a shirt for men.

In the exhibition, there were also shops that were selling yukata (these are for children)

obi (belts),

and geta (wooden clogs).

They had tents for visitors to try on kimono free of charge as well. I saw a couple and their little boy in kimono who were happily taking pictures.

Hamamatsu is also a production area of fabric.

Today is July 7, and we have the Star Festival. This is based on a legend of two lovers (stars Altair and Vega) that are allowed to meet on a bride over the Milky Way once a year. We display bamboo grass with colorful paper strips on which our wishes are written. Instead of such strips, the one in Soramo had some paper decorations.

On July 7, we have often rain, and the lovers cannot meet because of the flood of the Heavenly River (Milky Way). Unfortunately, it’s raining now, though it’s already night.

Vegan sweets in July

In Europe, they have a very hot summer this year. Here in Hamamatsu, the temperature is still less than 30 ℃, however, it’s humid and uncomfortable sometimes. Confectionary stores are selling cool sweets with jelly and summer fruits. In Japanese-style confectionary stores, jelly is usually made from agar. In Entetsu Department Store, there is a temporary shop of Taneya (たねや) from Shiga Prefecture until August 20. They have three kinds of agar jelly: with adzuki beans, summer orange, and dark molasses & roasted soybean flour. They all looked delicious.

I bought the one with summer orange sauce. The package looked like this. It contained agar jelly, sauce, and description about how to prepare the dessert.

The jelly consisted of seven pieces. First, I drew out the divider from the plastic case to put the pieces to the bowl one by one.

Then I poured the sauce over the jelly.

The sweet and sour sauce was good as it was. But I didn’t think it went well with agar jelly and couldn’t help thinking it might be better with dark molasses & roasted soybean flour. It may be because I haven’t got used to such a combination.

In Entetsu Department Store, I didn’t buy any other sweets this time. I didn’t know exactly what kinds of sweets were typical in July. Later, I found an interesting combination of sweets sold together at a reasonable price. Both of them are sasamochi. Sasa means a bamboo leaf, and mochi a rice cake (in this case, it means a soft elastic sweet resembling a rice cake).

The left one is called kuzunomochi. It is simply made from adzuki beans, sugar, and arrowroot starch. It is very much like mizumanju I introduced in “Vegan sweets in June.” The difference was that kuzunomochi was wrapped with a bamboo leaf, and it contained more adzuki bean paste inside. The fragrance of the fresh bamboo leaf was noticeable already when I opened the package, which gave an additional flavor to kuzunomochi.

The right one is hunomochi. Immediately before opening the pack, I noticed it was not vegan. The ingredients were as follows: adzuki beans, sugar, glutinous rice flour, wheat gluten, emulsifier (milk is contained in some ingredient). I have seen the same kind of sweet in some other stores. It was also called “humanju”, and basically made from wheat gluten (hu), sugar, and adzuki bean paste, I suppose. I wonder if it usually contains milk or not, but it seems to be one of the typical sweet sold at this time of year. The wheat flour skin of this hunomochi was so stretchy that it reminded me of chewing gum and a rice cake. If you are not a vegan, it’s worth tasting.

100% blueberry juice from Yamanashi Prefecture

Last Saturday, I got some food other then cherries from my mother. She had a special present for me; a bottle of 100% blueberry juice. I stare at my computer every day at work, and blueberries are said to be good for the eyes.

In Northern Europe, they have blueberry soup that I like very much. Blueberries are cultivated also in Japan, but they are rather expensive. The juice I got is produced in Yamanashi Prefecture where one half of Mr. Fuji is located (the other half is located in Shizuoka Prefecture). It is a mountainous prefecture famous for its grapes. They cultivate also peaches, cherries, strawberries, and blueberries, and tourists can participate in their picking.

My mother told me to drink 50 ml of juice at a time. Though the label says that sugar is added, it was much sweeter than I expected. I thought I’d better to make some desserts with it.