whole Meal

and of course, brown rice (with corn) and miso soup : )

whatever steamed veggies with tahini-soy dressing

also added leftover cooked chick pea : )

Millet Croquette

so creamy! even though i didnt use any types of milk(almond milk), except for the batter.

cook millet according to the instruction
while saute dised onions
mix all with salt and pepper

for batter
combine almond milk, whole wheat flour, and pinch of kuzu root powder

make pattie, coat it with the batter, then whole wheat ponko.
then fry both side (deep fry is good, too, but it will be too greasy...)
to help digestion of fat(oil), eat with grated daikon sauce or lemon.

carrot greens

wanted to use carrot greens other than for "goma-ae, blanched/mix with sesame-soy dressing" or soup.

last night, i made two dishes.
1 blanched, and mix with miso/veggie mayo dressing, with toasted sunflower seed.
this was really really good, almost adictive.

2 sauteed with onion, aburaage(double fried tofu), with soy sauce and mirin.
this one was good, too.

but i want more variation.
i tried kakiage (deep fry) before, but it wasn't that good, probably because i didn't do it right...

but it's just such a waste if discard this nutritional power house!

saturday lunch after green market

steamed kale
kimpira gobo, carrot and lotus root
sauted tofu with scallions
vegetable miso soup
brown rice with adzuki

simple, yet almost all are fresh and local produce :)
thank you, farmers!!

Gobo

an organic vegetarian restaurant in the village, NYC, Gobo.
one of my favorites in the city : )

we had...
pan fried vegetable damplings
veggie curry
saitan skewers with wasabi/green tea dipping sauce
veggie fried rice with pinapple & avocado

corkage fee is $18, but they have good selections of organic wines, too!

Update on my little friend

for one whole week, he was just eating the corn, so quietly, and getting bigger and bigger by the window.
and on sunday morning when i got up, he was gone!
i looked everywhere, but could not find him.
giving up, and i was sweeping my apartment.
then there he was! he was crawling on the floor!

i put him back to the small dish with a corn, but he seemed to want to move around and tried to get out of the dish.
he was so active on that morning.
so i decided that it was time for him to go.

i put him in a small container, and still he was trying to get out of it.
and i took him to central park.
found a good place, and let him go.
with his favorite food...

hope he will be a beautiful butterfly and live a wonderful life : )

and the simple meal with harvested produce

kale, carrot, daikon, kabocha, all from local farms!
steamed them, with marinated tofu(pan fried), and wakame on top of nice warm brown rice/barley.

simple yet satisfying meal for the harvest moon evening : )

Harvest Moon 2010

went to empire state building. for the first time in 14 years!
and the moon was so beautiful : )

a bit different way to watch and appriciate the full moon...

Chu-shu no Meigetsu, or Harvest Moon

the first day of autumn, and the harvest moon tonight.
in Japan, we have traditionally celebrated this special full moon called "chu-shu no meigetsu".
the literally meaning is "mid sutumn full moon" since according to the old, lunar calender, around this time of the year is right in the middle of autumn.

and the angle between the sun and the moon is supposed to be perfect to watch and appreciate the moon as well as drier air, so people believe that this is the most beautiful full moon in a year.

how people celebrate?
eating seasonal produce like kabocha, sweet potato, and of course, newly harvested rice...and drinking sake, read poem, and watch the moon.
sometimes put a bowl of water, then appreciate the reflection of the moon.

how would you like to cerebrate?

one more...

simply sauteed collard green, chick pea, and sweet potato.
delicious!

another creation

kimpira gobo, hijiki in creamy tofu/nuts dressing.
liked it : )

whole wheat biscuit

from "the Kind Diet"
good! for somebody who is poor at baking, like me...

Lesson...

daikon top should be cut into small pieces.
otherwise, you have to either cook(blanch) too much or very very hard to chew : (

the dressing is tahini soy.

even the worm...

found it irresistable : )
it came with the corn, and hiding(and eating) until i opened it...
almost for a week in the fridge!

Super Sweet Corn with Rice

sweet corns from union square market.
i cooked with brown rice, sweet brown rice.
OMG! super sweet!
it was like a rice pudding or something.

my guess is, since the season is changing to more yin, and the produces have more yang quality, which is dense, contracting.
therefore, and the sweetness of the corns is more concentrated late summer or early fall.

does that make sense?

anyhow, it was just sooooooo good!

Macro Gratin

more precisely, "whatever in the fridge" vegan gratin.
kabocha, zucchini, egg plant, sweet potato, bean, brown rice, and touch of miso and soy sauce, topped with rice cheese.

another nice n easy fall dish : )

zucchini salad

zhucchini season is ending soon!
so i made zhucchini salad.
i had a fabulous one at an italian restaurant a while ago, but i didn't know the resipe, so this is my creation.
not quite.... but it was good in its own way : )

for the tempeh pate

for tempeh pate, which i eat with whole wheat pita bread like sandwich.

steam tempeh
saute diced onion and red bell pepper (local and organic : )
crumble tempeh in a bowl, mix with the veggies
add cooked hijiki, soy sauce, veggie mayo, turmeric(optional), salt and pepper.
that's it!

great party food or weekend brunch : )
and goes well with wine, too!

Tempeh "crab" cake

using leftover tempeh pate i made the previous night, i made this "crab cake".
juts form a cake, coat with whole wheat flour and panko, and pan fry. that's all.
and it really does taste like crab cake!
only, it was kind of crumbly... any idea to hold it firm???

Aji Gohan --- flavoerd rice

this dish reminds me of my mother's cooking : )
cook rice with shitake mushroom, kombu, and soy sauce.
you can also add some root veggies such as carrot, gobo, lotus root etc.
all in one dish, and tastes soooooo good!

potato, kabocha, cucumber salad

steamed potato and kabocha, while kneed sliced cucumber with sea salt.
combine all in a bowl, add olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
sort of "early fall salad" : )

a nice fall evening...

it's getting cooler in the evening in NYC.
can't believe it was 90s just a few weeks ago!
i wake up because its so cold in the morning.

aside from adzuki kabocha & sauteed veggies/seitan, steamed kale, miso soup and brown rice complete this evening's meal : )

lotus root dish

simply sauteed lotus root, green beans, onions, bell peppers, and seitan.
with soy sauce.
quick and easy, nutritious dish.
different taste and texture all in one!
i like this kind of "whatever saute" dish : )

kabocha is back!!

at union square market, more and more fall produces are back again.
and my favorite, kabocha!!

so i made a standard dish, adzuki kabocha : )
this dish is so comforting and makes me want to celebrate the new season!

911 and A-bombed Piano

on 9.11, i went to a floating lantern ceremony held by Japanese buddhist monks in NYC by hudson river.

and there was this old piano which survived atomic bomb in hiroshima in 1945.

every year, i was feeling uneasy around september 11th.
and i didn't like to watch any ceremony to commemorate the event, let alone, attending it.
mass medias provoke "patriotism", or worse, "hatred" and "retaliation", justifying wars in iraq and afganistan.

i feel truely sorry for the victims, and those who lost loved ones.
so i quietly praying for those victims, and for the peace every year as i always do on 8.6 and 8.9 which are hiroshima & nagasaki day.

and this year....
things seemed worse than ever before.
more "rift" and "disharmony" were developing, as the day approached.
stories about bigotry were everywhere.

is this really what those victimes wished for?
is this the lesson that we should learn from that tragedy?

then i saw a small article in the times a few days before 9.11.
a buddhist church was going to do a floating ceremony in hudson river, which is a japanese tradition to commemorate the spirit of the deceased.
and a piano that survived atomic bomb would be there, too.

it was a small ceremny, probably just a few hundred of people.
but it was full of kindness, peacefullness, and hamony.
no protest, no anti-anything.
just people who truely wish for peace and harmony.

this is what it should be.
this is, i thought, what 9,11 is all about.
hope this will be the day when people, no matter what race, religion, gather and pray for one peaceful world.

i felt some sort of spirit in the old, quiet piano, as if it were sending us a message...

fall-like evening...

finally new york is getting cooler, and now it almost feels like fall.

a cool evening like last night, some baked food would be nice.

so i made vegan lasagna, using white egg plants from organic farm in PA (thank you, Beckey!), and some leftovers in the fridge.

first lightly fried sliced egg plant.
heat up leftover tomato sauce and add leftover brown rice, touch of miso.
in a casserole dish, place fried egg plants, leftover marinated tofu, tomato sauce, and rice cheese on top.
baked 15min. garnish with parsley.

this was one of my best invention!
it was huge, but we cleaned up so fast : )

Weekend quickie

rice bowl with steamed kale, another green (forgot the name!), wakame, zuccini, saurkraut, and marinated tofu, on top of rice/adzuki.
kimpira is a leftover from the previous night, and miso soup with buttercup squash and scallions.

my standard macro meal

sometimes, these simple dishes are just conforting and healing : )

Arame salad

i saw this recipe, and tried.
but the raw red onion was too strong for me, and the tofu/garlic dressing was also too garlicky...
so i don't know....

i just wanted to make good dishes with arame, other than saute with onion/carrot.
anyone knows good resipes?

couscous salad and tempeh dish

close up of the couscous salad and tempeh dish.
so we put this tempeh stuff inside pita bread and ate it.

our friends are not vegetarian, but they seemed to enjoy.
or were they just polite??

Vegan Dinner Party : )

Invited friends from NJ, we had a vegan dinner at home.
the menu was
1 tomatoes and basils(from our friends' organic garden) with seasoned tofu
2 whole wheat couscous salad
3 tempeh sandwich (onion, red bellpepper, and hijiki)in whole wheat pita bread
4 sauted collard green with pear, raisin, sunflower seeds
5 steamed corn

new moon

it's the new moon today.
some people say that today's new moon is the starting point of a very special cycle, more so than 2012.
and it's time to prepare for the next stage, or the new period.

slowly, but steadily, I'm going to walk toward my dreams : )
with patience...

Lentil Tomato Soup

my friends from Prinston brought lots of fresh organic veggies grown in their own garden!

so i made some fabulous meal with them.
one is this lentil tomato soup.

tomatoes are already too yin, so instead of using potatoes, i used butter nut squash for a balance.
and for seasonings, a bit of miso, soy sauce to add more yang quality to it.
other ingredients are also from my friends' garden, such as carrot, basil.

this, i have to serve at candle cafe or something : )

who said...?

Vegan dish is "deprivation" ?
look at this vegan lasagna!

if you have never dined at Candle Cafe on upper east side, you have to right now.

did you read the article in the new york times the other day?
on this TV show on food network called "cup cake war", the vegan cup cake won the competition!
and it's because they were so DELICIOUS!


ummm, im more inspired.

domburi!

inspired by the food that i had in LA/Palm springs, i made a domburi or rice bowl dish.
well, not quite like this, this is my invention, but i liked it : )

tofu, hijiki, onion, carrot, scallion all cooked with sesame oil, dashi stock, soy sauce, miso.
and ladel them over a bowl of warm brown rice.
quick and easy, and of course, delicious : )

how about....

whole grain couscous salad?
oh, this is so easy to make and so refreshing!
love it love it love it!!
i didn't even know that there is a whole grain version.

too yang?

while in LA, two macrobiotic people said to me, "brown rice 3 times a day? that's probably too much, especially living in new york!"

i had been kind of starting to think so, since id been a bit angry, rigid, and losing sense of humour recently.

new york city, so compact, condensed, and fast-pace... a.k.a, very YANG!
and eating pressure cooked brown rice 3 times a day?
no wonder i'm becoming like this!

for my own defense, im eating it because i like it.
growing up in japan, rice and miso soup are basic, comfort food that gives me energy.

anyhow, maybe i should relax and eat other "less yang" grains.
so this is barley and corn.
also udon or other flour product may be good ,too, to relax and cope with the energy of manhattan : )

12000 sq feet!

huge space, and very similar to whole food store!
well, this is the original : )

and of course, lots of stuff for macrobiotic foods.
i could spend whole day there!

Before Whole Foods

Erehwon, natural food store located in west hollywood, is a pioneer of health food store in the US, founded by many including Michio, Aveline Kushi, the leader of Macrobiotics.

so why not paying a visit to the mecca of health food store?

M cafe in Beverly Hills

in the middle of Beverly Hills, another location for M cafe.
smaller than the other one in west hollywood, but almost the same menu.
i had curry tempeh wrap.

this really inspired me and since then, ive been making this a lot : )
side is a california sushi roll. why not, right?

Tofu cheese cake

how could i resisit?

Vegan Pizza

instead of cheese, they use some sort of nuts cream.
pizza crust is made of corn (gluten free).
it was so huge that we could not finish, so asked to wrap up and enjoyed it on the flight back home : )

RED

tastes like a crab cake, but of course, it's vegan : )
delicious!

Real Food Deli

another good place to dine near the beach is, RFD.
Real Food Deli.
organic vegan cafe, and they have macro dishes, too : )

two places are next to each other (the same menu), and one serves alcohol (also BYOB for $15)
so we enjoyed fabulous meal with wine : )

Seed

love the atmosphere, too.
tables are made of recycled wood, and high ceiling gives an open-air feeling.
during the day, almost no need for the artificial light.
must-visit place when you are in LA : )

Home made seitan : )

another order, seitan rice bowl.
lots of fresh steamed veggies, and the seitan is homemade!
yum yum yum!

Best veggie burger in LA

this tempeh burger at Seed was chosen for the best veggie burger in LA : )
and i totally agree!

Seed

Seed is a macrobiotic cafe in venice, LA.
steps away from venice beach, and sort of funky, hippy neighbourhood.
this is the reason i went to LA this time : )

this photo shows more clearly...
it really feels good when the mist touches upon your skin.
but, since it was extemely hot during my stay even at night --- like 105!!--, we decided to eat inside...

Mister

Palm spring is so hot, and dry.
so sidewalk cafes have this mister.
the mist falls onto your skin and evapolates, which gives you the cool feeling.
very peculiar to Palm Springs.

can you see the mist in the photo?