I hope you enjoy what I have managed to come up with.

Rules to Armchair Adventures Food Porn. If I haven’t significantly changed a recipe then I will just talk about it and offer a link to the website I got it from or the book I got it from.

My recipes are gluten free and vegan due to my dietary needs. If I’ve altered a recipe I will leave a link to the original one so if you want to try it you can.

The first dish we made, my 12 year old daughter made this one, is a vegan version of nikujaga, meat with vegetables. The food blog I got it from had already made the changes and these is a photo, thankfully because I forgot to take a picture.

I didn’t change much, just the tofu. I’m not a huge fan of fried tofu and I am trying to eat healthy so I baked my tofu, here’s what I did.

Cubed I pkg of extra firm tofu
Placed on a oiled cookie sheet so cubes didn’t touch.
Brushed on a mild sauce.
Baked in a 350 oven for 20-30 min.
Let the tofu cool before removing it from the cookie sheet.

Okay the tofu is going to stick, next time I make it I’m going to try parchment paper and see if that helps.
Baking the tofu like this dries it out a bit, making it chewier and it doesn’t break up when you cook it.
Sauce- you was to use just a little bit- if you choose to use any at all. The sauce I used

¼ c water
2Tbs Tamari
2Tbs Braggs
2tsp Marin
2 tsp Spike – an all purpose seasoning
1 tsp garlic pwd

I mixed that together then using a pastry brush brushed some onto the tofu. I also could have used the sauce from the dish, or left them plain. But don’t add too much you want the tofu to dry out.

I liked this dish a lot, it had a good flavor, which was subtle not over powering like some American Japanese restaurants can be. I can easily see a Samurai eating this dish. This is something I have bookmarked and will make again.

In all of the books pickled vegetables are mentioned so I decided to try some. I went to the market where they have a large import selection. I found a selection of pickled Japanese vegetables and choose: cucumbers, missed vegetables with lotus root, ginger, and plums.

Hubby made some really yummy rice and vegetables in a bottled Teriyaki sauce, which was yummy. When we take an Armchair Adventure to modern Japan I’ll try Teriyaki recipes myself.

Pickled Cucumber- these were good, there was s spice in them I was unfamiliar with and they were a bit saltier then I am use to.

Pickled mixed vegetables- I liked these, they were a bit sweet and still crunchy.

Pickled plum- I couldn’t eat this at all, it was sour and very salty. I might try and find a recipe with pickled plums and see if I can eat them that way.

Pickled ginger- this one was a cheat, I love ginger and I’ve had pickled ginger many times before. Once I was done with my taste test I dumped the pickled ginger all over my rice and vegetables.

Warning- check the labels we found MSG in many of the pickled vegetables at the store.

I did take my daughter out for sushi to celebrate our journey to Japan. She was very brave and tried a lot of new things. The spicy crab roll was her favorite.

Do you have a favorite traditional Japanese foods? Any recipes or food blogs you can share with us?

Don’t forget our vacations to Shogun Japan isn’t over yet, on Friday I’ll be sharing several movies to finish up our journey.