East Asian cuisine

In common with most British people, I have a good deal of familiarity with Mediterranean cuisine: pizza, pasta, polenta; tomatoes, aubergines (eggplant), courgettes (zucchini); olives, onions and garlic; basil, oregano and rosemary. Moving to the eastern Mediterranean, I include hummus, felafels and pitta bread: staple vegan food when eating out in Paris, Berlin or Kyoto. Likewise, I am familiar with a wide variety of Indian dishes, and although I have never visited India, I have eaten in Indian restaurants from Edinburgh to London, Bruges to Toulouse, Tokyo to New York. Consequently, when I cook Mediterranean food (several times each week) or Indian food (fortnightly), I have a good idea about what it is supposed to taste like.

I do not know what most East Asian food is supposed to taste like. As a vegan, I have never eaten in a Thai, Indonesian or Malaysian restaurant. I have twice eaten in an excellent partly-Vietnamese restaurant in Berlin, and very occasionally eat in vegetarian Chinese restaurants, such as in Boston or New York. In Japan we ate in so few Japanese restaurants (we ate felafels and Indian food in Tokyo and Kyoto, and Mediterranean food in Tokyo), that I have as much familiarity with Japanese food in New York. Consequently, when I cook East Asian food, I have little idea about whether a person from the country would recognise what I had prepared.

For me, the ultimate case in point is my miso soup. I make it with miso, lots of miso. I also use vegetable stock, onions, garlic, capsicum (bell) peppers, sauteed shi-itake mushroom, fried tofu, arame (seaweed), ramen noodles, basil and black pepper. It is delicious ('oishi'), but we never tasted anything like it in Japan. Similarly my Chinese sweet and sour vegetables is packed full of vegetables (such as bamboo shoots and water chestnuts) and flavours (such as pineapple and vinegar), whereas in Chinese restaurants the sweet and sour has been a sweet, sticky sauce packed with MSG. My chow mein cauliflower and broccoli florets are sauteed in garlic, ginger and shoyu. My sauteed mushrooms, tofu and mange tout in black bean sauce is extremely moreish, but I doubt that it has a trace of authenticity. My South-East Asian noodle soup/stew, made with coconut milk, tomatoes, capsicum (bell) peppers, baby corn cobs, arame (seaweed), spring onions, garlic, basil, vegetable stock, turmeric and chilli pepper, rarely lasts long, but who knows where the recipe would be recognised?

Does it matter if the food tastes good? To some extent, yes it does matter. I enjoy using authentic ingredients, such as tempeh for Indonesian dishes, and wasabi, shoyu and mirin on my sushi. Without an intent towards authenticity there is a danger that everything I cook will eventually taste like variations on a single theme.

My holiday in Japan

I went to Tokyo and Kyoto. I stayed in Japan for two and a half weeks. I went by aeroplane, from Newcastle to Amsterdam and then to Tokyo.

In Tokyo I liked Ginza. Ginza was near our hotel, it has lots of shops and bright lights, like Times Square in New York. I liked shopping there, looking at kimonos and the paper shop and choosing presents. We saw lots of ladies wearing kimonos in Tokyo and Kyoto and watched people trying them on in a big department store. I bought a kimono and a little toy puppy called Mitzy and a lucky cat. Mummy and I chose pretty cards and origami paper and presents in the paper shop.


Ginza at night

The Ghibli Museum was my favourite place. Studio Ghibli makes Japanese animated films, I have lots on DVD, my favourites are Whisper of the Heart and Kiki’s Delivery Service and I like My Neighbour Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle. At the museum I saw a toy cat bus and a little film and how the films are made. I bought a little Totoro key ring and a little charm for my phone.


Ghbli Museum, Mitaka, Tokyo

I liked visiting other museums too. In the Japanese National Museum I liked the Buddha sculptures and the kimonos and the woodblock prints of Mount Fuji, I chose a tee shirt with Mount Fuji and the huge wave. We went up the Tokyo tower, it’s a bit like the Eiffel tower, and we saw Mount Fuji at sunset.


Tokyo Tower


Fujisan at sunset

I went to the zoo in Tokyo, I saw Japanese monkeys and pandas.

In Kyoto we visited temples and shrines. I washed my feet before I went in, Mummy and Daddy had to take their shoes off.

In Nara I saw naughty deer, they ate people’s maps and papers, I thought that was funny. The deer live in the park around the temples.


Shika deer, Nara


Statue of Buddha at Todaji Temple, Nara

I thought Japanese wheelchair toilets were really good, not like in England. I got bottom wash and blow dry and the seats are warm! When we went on the train at Shimbashi station near our hotel in Tokyo, I went up the escalators on a special platform for wheelchairs, that’s different from England. At the stations men helped us and cleared a path for me through the crowds, I felt a little bit like a princess. On the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto we had a little wheelchair room, it was nice but it felt a bit lonely.

In Tokyo I ate noodles, just once. I wanted to eat more noodles, but it was hard to find vegetarian food. I liked choosing cakes from the Stick Sweet Factory shop in Tokyo, and the nice French patisserie in the hotel, it made really good chocolate croissants. I liked the vanilla cream frappuccino in Starbucks too!

The weather was hot and sunny, in Kyoto it was a little bit too hot, I felt sweaty and thirsty and wanted to stay in the shade.

I liked going to Japan, I thought it was exciting and different. At first I felt confused because I can’t understand Japanese writing, but I learned to speak a little bit of Japanese, I said ohayo (good morning) and arigato (thank you) to people and they understood me.

Jemima