I went to Japan and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.

If only that were true. In fact, I had to pay extra to cart all my goodies home. Six kilos of bento boxes, Hello Kitty hairbrushes and four hundred and seventy-five pieces of cute stationery. Seriously, the place is a shopping mecca. Everything screams "buy me! now!" and the stores are packed. I went to a shopping centre that was only for teenage girls and there was eight levels! It was intense... and full of fake eyelashes. 

The Japanese, from what I saw, are phenomenally well-dressed. Hair perfect, pretty bows on shoes, a serious addiction to eye makeup and gorgeous coats. Men were looking sharp in suits and little kids were straight out of catalogues. It made me re-think my devotion to hoodies in winter!

The foliage was breathtaking, and filled the beautiful parks we went to.

We definitely do not get this in Queensland! Trees are either green or brown. Or greenish-brown.

Shibuya was a sensory overload - no wonder they call it the Times Square of Tokyo! The thickest crowds, the brightest lights, the loudest TV billboards. I was invited to buy the latest single from Sexy Zone, and Afterschool Xmas, and some Pocky, among other things. The scramble crossing was insane, at some points I had to hang on to Veggie Dad's bag so I didn't get carried away by the tide. Lots of people going in lots of different directions!  

The statue of Hachiko was so sweet. I love the story - he was the much-loved dog of a Tokyo University professor, and would meet after work at the station every day when the train was due to walk his owner home. One day in 1925, the professor did not appear, having died from a brain haemorrhage. Hachiko continued to wait at the train station faithfully at the end of each day until he too died nine years later.

*sniff*

Tokyo DisneySea was super-fun. Seven ports, all very different, all very well-recreated. Mediterranean Harbour, American Waterfront, Lost River Delta, Port Discovery, Mermaid Lagoon, Arabian Coast and Mysterious Island were all so much fun to walk through and explore. We had the best time in King Triton's cave, where everything was The Little Mermaid-themed and aimed at the younger kiddies. Veggie Baby had her first theme park ride and was nonplussed. Dad and I, however, were loving it.

I wanted to go on the Tower of Terror ride so bad, and climb all over the S.S. Columbia, but the wait times were in excess of 70 minutes... so I consoled myself with some popcorn - one batch was black pepper-flavoured, and another was milk tea. Weird, but good!

Shinjuku Golden Gai blew our minds and made us wish we had a babysitter! six tiny alleyways packed to the brim with even tinier bars for 4-6 people. I'm reliably informed you can order a beer and some metal music on the same menu and you can rock out in your cramped quarters. The doors looked like tiny fairy doors from an Enid Blyton book, only they were painted black and brown and had graffiti and stickers all over them. Punk fairy doors?

 Even normal streets were terribly narrow and sidewalks even more so. If they hadn't been so incredibly polite, I swear we would have been abused for daring to take a small stroller anywhere outdoors. As it was, we were restricted to the larger family-style eateries as most places were very small and compact. If you're claustrophobic, I suggest you holiday elsewhere! I love cosy spaces so I was right at home. Even if Veggie Dad and I had to walk through the hallway in our room separately, never both at once... in fact, the only place we could both be in the same vicinity was the double bed! A crying baby seems eighty times louder in such confines. Still cute, though. The baby, not the crying.

Sunset over Mt Fuji from the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building was pretty special. The city stretches out for ever in every direction.

Sadly we couldn't eat a lot of Japanese food, as there is meat and fish in everything. I figured we could eat tempura and just ask for veggies (yasai) instead of whatever they had. I learned how to say "I don't eat meat" the last time we went to Japan in 2008, but they don't see seafood as meat. (As an aside, that is usually the first question I get when people find out I'm vegetarian - "do you eat fish?" Why is this? Fish is an animal, no? If I'm vegetarian, why would I eat fish? Please explain!) After this dish was brought out with prawns and whitefish along with the veggies, I went home and learned how to say "I don't eat meat or fish"!

 And last but not least, Harajuku, Yoyogi Park and some serious shopping. We watched the rockabilly/Elvis dancers we first saw in this film clip a while ago (they are awesome!), lots of people wandering around looking cool, practicing their musical instruments, jogging, yoga-ing, hula hooping, rehearsing plays and several Japanese boy bands going through their moves. I went nuts in the Kiddyland toy store, bought two crazy cool vintage dresses and wondered if I'd ever get out of the streets alive... it's a hectic place and the one that was most filled with foreigners.

Oh and Americans abroad? You are loud, rude and ignorant. Most of you, anyway... sad.

 There was still so much we didn't see... just going to have to go again, I guess...

Wanna come too?

Wonton soup for you!

I was that freak wandering up and down the streets of Melbourne CBD recently looking at all the places that may or may not sell soup. Specifically wonton soup. The sad part was, it was about 7am and apparently places that sell wonton soup in the CBD have this thing were they don't open at that hour of the morning. I know! I couldn't believe it either. I wanted that soup so bad.

The community in which I live is more "let's surf for three days straight then get a beer and some chips", as opposed to "where would you like to eat tonight dear? Malaysian? Korean? Italian? How about some Ethiopian?", which I have to say is much more my style.

It's usually left to me to make whatever it is I'm craving, because it just doesn't exist where I am. And now that Veggie Baby is on board for the ride, it's not as easy to pop to Brisbane or somewhere similar for the day to get my fix. It's much more of a production and she wouldn't like the soup anyway, so it's back to the kitchen I go.

With my head full of wonton soup needs and my chest full of cold and/or flu, shit was about to get serious if I didn't make this soup a reality. I needed that soup like a flower needs the rain, like a poet needs the pain, like I need a new simile.

Not having any meat in the soup makes it a bit tricky flavour-wise, but with a good stock and plenty of onion, garlic and ginger, anything is possible. This soup filled my requirements, and when I posted a picture to Instagram, I even had people from the US demanding to be flown in to eat it. Trouble was, I wasn't going to share my soup with a single soul. NO SOUP FOR YOU!

Except if you make it yourself...

Ingredients:

For the soup:
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 red or green chillies, roughly chopped
a thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled
2-3 coriander stalks
6 cups water or stock or a mixture of stock and water (be careful with the soy if you use stock)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup ketjap manis
Salt and pepper
carrot, spring onion and bok choy sliced thinly, fresh corn kernels
extra coriander for garnish

For the wontons:
1 packet wonton wrappers
1 clove garlic
6-8 field mushrooms, minced
1 small carrot, cut into very small cubes
a splash of soy
a few tablespoons of ketjap manis, enough to moisten the mix
1 teaspoon cornflour

Directions:

1. Process onion, garlic, ginger, chillies and coriander root in a food processor until mush. You could alternatively use a mortar and pestle to crush.

2. Fry this off in a little oil for a minute or so. Add your liquids and sauces.

3. Bring to a boil and then simmer while you make the wontons.

4. For wontons, fry the mushrooms, carrot and garlic in a little oil until soft. Add sauces and sprinkle cornflour over, stirring to combine and slightly thicken.

5. Lay out your wontons and spoon a teaspoonful of mushroom mixture into the centre. With your finger, run a little water around the edge and then fold in half, sealing the edges tightly. You can scrunch them up or fold the corners together to make neat little wontons.

6. Either cook your wontons in the soup gently with the extra vegetables (carrot, etc) 3-4 minutes until all are cooked. If you're a purist (some people don't want the flour on the outside of the wontons to mess their soup up), cook them in boiling water before adding to the soup.

7. Check for seasoning and adjust to your taste. Add coriander and any other garnish. Fresh chilli would be good.

8. Serve immediately. If there are going to be wontons left over, I would freeze them immediately and put them into the soup to reheat later. I wouldn't cook them and leave them in the soup or it will go all mushy and awful and you will curse me until your dying day. I can't have that!

Bento

I get very excited about bento. A Japanese version of a lunchbox, bento has devoted followers not just in Japan, but all over the world. And I can see why. It appeals to my senses of order and pretty - some bentoists go to elaborate measures to present food in the most attractive way possible. I just like how it looks in its tiny little sections, all delicately garnished and separate and cute. And please, don't get me started on the containers themselves... they were just about the only thing I brought back from Japan!

Below is how I'd have my lunch every day if only I had the time, the inclination, and the skill:



Never gonna happen.
Link



Below is one way that bento can be constructed in Japan for either lunch or dinner:




I love the random bits of one orange segment or one cherry tomato.
Link



Below is how a lazy Australian Veggie Mama packs a bento:



Still tastes good!

Extra snacks :)

Fruit and treats.

I love bento for the excuse I get to have cute things and make my food look pretty. On the plus side, the food also tastes good. On the negative side, it can take slightly more effort than slapping some Vegemite on Wonder White and throwing some Iced Vo-Vos in Glad Wrap. But honestly? Not much more. The point is to have it tightly packed, garnished, cracks filled and tiny portions of lots of things. Speaking of tiny portions, Japan was Veggie Mama's dream come true. Everything I ate was dainty and perfectly proportioned for me - right down to the three artfully-placed drops of ketchup next to my neatly mounded mashed potatoes. sigh.

For this I've added some dinner leftovers... veggies sauteed in garlic, chili, teriyaki sauce and rice wine vinegar, some rice, and two bamboo-wrapped mock chicken pieces. Hello Kitty contains wasabi peas, cherry tomatoes and edamame for snacking or as extras (extra containers are known as 'sidecars' among the bento enthusiasts) and the Clickety Click container with grapes, a jam sandwich and a cream cheese sandwich cut into shapes, and a mini Hershey treat. The top of this container kills me with its Engrish - it says "Yummy yummy, my name is Rinda. I love the white cake. And sweet cherries", and has a picture of a yellow, winking rabbit. ADORABLE.

There are tons of bento blogs for you to check out, should you be so inclined, with tons of ideas to make your food cute. Some make Pokemon cheese shapes for their kindergartners, some colour their rice blue and make a full underwater scene with their food. Some press boiled eggs into various shapes that imprint cheerful faces on them, some cut octopi out of hot dogs. I will be doing all this and more when Bumpington goes to school, so lets put the good vibe out there now that it will be a girl, as I"m not sure a son would ever forgive me....