Welcome !

Hello ! This blog is an annex of my main all-food blog.
Click on the castle picture on your right to go there.
There are not many visits here, so I don’t reblog all my vegan posts, but there are many.
If you want more, sorted according to your needs, click here for :

Vegan

Vegan plus vegetarian

gluten free

dairy free

From the shop : kashiwa-mochi, oak leaf sweet (via Gourmande in Osaka)

Lucky ! You've found a pearl in your oak leaf. This sweet is eaten in this season, and particularly on May 5th , for the Children Day. This one is bought. That's why it is more perfect than mines. Hey, baker is a job and you don't get the professional skill overnight. It's really shiny, and harder in texture than daifuku mochi. The recipe is different. Use the little wood knife to cut it… It's filled with koshi-an (smooth anko bean paste). Good … Read More

via Gourmande in Osaka

Catching bargains and late afternoon light on flavorful fruits (via Gourmande in Osaka)

At the end of the day, Japanese grocery stores, markets and supermarket discount fresh products. 5%, 10%…50% as the hours pass. And they make big bags of fruits "for juice". What is wrong with those fruits ? The apples for instance, they fell. And did you know that a fallen apple was very bad for your health or even less tasty ? No. Because that's not the problem at all. You can keep the "not-fallen" ones months, and the ones that got some shoc … Read More

via Gourmande in Osaka

Ume plum blossoms for an early Spring tea (via Gourmande in Osaka)

Ume (Japanese sour plum) trees are blossoming in Osaka. Their fragrance is like in a dream. Old style yatsuhashi sweets (from a shop, not home-made). They are a specialty tea cake of Kyoto, whose production started in Yatsuhashi (8 bridge street) in 17th Century. The oldest ones were yaki yatsuhashi that are cookies, shape in half cylinder, like the bridge that gave the name. Today, it's nama yatsuhashi (fresh time), a more recent type. My green … Read More

via Gourmande in Osaka

Hatsuga Genmai (germinated rice) (via Gourmande in Osaka)

This is called "hatsuga genmai" in Japanese, literally "whole rice with a start of germination" and that's the healthiest way to prepare our rice. The taste is slightly closer to white rice than to brown rice. Why ? The common white rice is mostly starch. Certain white rices still contain their germs, it has more nutrients and elements. Brown rice still has a skin rich in fibers. "hatsuga genmai" has all of that and a very increased level of GABA … Read More

via Gourmande in Osaka

Setsubun (Japan’s last day of Winter) (via Gourmande in Osaka)

< For the last day of Winter and the start of spring… the Japanese tradition is to scare of the oni (devils) by throwing roast soy beans at them. Well, I prefered those wagashi (Japanese traditional cakes) with my tea. They are shaped like devils. Wagashi Saga : Photo-menu of all Japanese sweet posts. … Read More

via Gourmande in Osaka

Modern mochi, the moffle way (via Gourmande in Osaka)

No Japanese new year without mochi (blocks of pounded cooked sticky rice)… There are classics way to serve them, yaki-mochi (grilled chewy), boiled in soup, okaki (grilled crispy). This is the lazy way mochi… To have the authentic ones, certified by the Moffle Academy, you absolutely need to buy a moffle maker of the authentic moffle brand : As you see, it's a robot piglet from Star Trek. It's not cheap, but if it comes from another era, plan … Read More

via Gourmande in Osaka

Colorful noshi mochi (via Colorfood Daidokoro Gourmande in Osaka)

I had showed some before : These are flavored, and not home-made. I've looked for more information. They are made from pounded cooked sticky rice (this is the definition of mochi).Then they are shaped and dried. In cool weather (0 C to 14 C), mochi can be hung outside to dry under sunlight. That's why they are called noshi mochi　or kan mochi (寒餅 = cold weather mochi), well, I don't get why the noshi reading… but many sources say it's the reason … Read More

via Colorfood Daidokoro Gourmande in Osaka

Dragon beans and berlingot salad (via Colorfood Daidokoro Gourmande in Osaka)

I'm a dragon…. …shhh ! Dragon bean. A tropical vegetable. It's really fun to shop in the food section of a Japanese department store. They propose countless varieties of exotic, rare and new products. The problem is you can ruin yourself. I take only the good bargains, in a limited budget. This is the salad of the future, in its berlingot bag. The salad too has that shape… it's convenient designed to be prepared without effort. Taste ? You … Read More

via Colorfood Daidokoro Gourmande in Osaka

A rainbow of hot peppers (via Colorfood Daidokoro Gourmande in Osaka)

A few years ago, there were few sorts of chili peppers in local shops in Japan. Actually, most markets and shops had only one in the fresh section : Shishito (shishitogarashi). "Lion chili pepper". It is not hot at all and easier to digest than a bell pepper. There are many Japanese recipes using it (tempura, skewers, salads…). We can buy it fresh year round. Recently, foreign varieties has become more common. I don't say we can buy them whenev … Read More

via Colorfood Daidokoro Gourmande in Osaka

White forrest of mushrooms (via Colorfood Daidokoro Gourmande in Osaka)

They are not aliens, but mushrooms… with funny names. Yamabushi-take. Mountain monk mushrooms. The Yamabushi mountain monks are old men, they have long hair and beard… well in the legend. Under the kimono. This is a hanabi-take. A firework mushroom. These are called bunapee. The full name is "white buna-shimeji", so they shortened it. Addition : They all grow in a farm. They are totally white. Recently new colors have been created for nearly … Read More

via Colorfood Daidokoro Gourmande in Osaka