Wasabi Soy Dressing & Wasabi…Earrings?!

I felt like having Subway the other morning, so I ended up randomly whipping up my own homemade sub. I used lettuce, ham, onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, tomato, egg, and a special wasabi soy sauce dressing. Did you know that that’s actually available at Subways here in Japan?! It sounds a bit extreme, but it’s actually delicious and adds a nice kick to your sub.

Wasabi Soy Dressing

• Wasabi
• Soy Sauce
• Sesame oil
• Rice Vinegar

So simple! Actually, I feel like it would make a great salad dressing as well.

I’ve been on a bit of a breakfast sandwich kick lately, so I actually ended up making another one this morning. I’ll admit that I got a bit carried away when I was slicing the bread. That’s a thick sandwich! XD

On the theme of wasabi, here is another one of my recent earring creations. A tube of wasabi and salmon sashimi. Cute right? 😀

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Melon Bread filled with Melon Custard

On the weekends I like to take the train out to Mito and spend the day there exploring. The place where I live is a bit rural so it’s not easy to get around on foot. I love to wander through Mito because it’s a bigger city so there are endless shops, restaurants, department stores and parks all within walking distance.

When I get there in the morning I usually walk past a bunch of fancy bakeries surrounding the train station and they’re always stocked with freshly baked gourmet buns and pastries ready for the morning and lunch rush. The bakeries in Japan are incredible. The variety is unbelievable…the only problem is deciding what to buy because everything looks so tempting! The other day I had a slice of heavenly raisin, walnut, maple syrup bread. I also have my eye on this green tea and red bean croissant.

One item that I’d really been curious about was the Mito melon buns, which are called melon pan in Japanese. The standard melon pan are sweet fluffy buns with a delicious cookie-like shell coating the top of the bread roll. They don’t actually have anything to do with melons, but are so named because the way that the cookie coating cracks after being baked resembles the rough surface of a musk melon. These standard melon pan are extremely popular and can be found absolutely everywhere.

In Mito, however, they have a special type of melon pan that people are going absolutely crazy for. The Mito melon buns actually have real melon in them. Apparently, they don’t use any water when making the bread dough…just pure melon juice! Inside, the buns are filled with sweet melon custard. And, instead of the typical golden sugar cookie coating, these specialty melon buns are topped with a green melon flavoured cookie shell. Like I said, Japanese bakeries are amazing!

These fancy bread rolls are called “Premium Melon Buns” and they even have their own specially made paper bags. When I walk past the bakeries in the morning, they are always well-stocked, but by the time I come back through in the evening, every single melon bun has been sold out…at every bakery! This weekend I was smart and bought a premium melon bun first thing in the morning. So, this was my breakfast!

Soba Buckwheat Noodles for Breakfast

One of my favorite meals that I like to throw together while here in Japan is a big bowl of soba noodles. It’s perfect in every way! It’s healthy, cheap, quick, easy, vegan, and delicious. When it’s cold outside you can serve it in a hot soup. Or, when it’s warm out you can eat it zaru soba style with a small bowl of cold broth on the side, which you dip bite-size portions of the soba noodles into bit by bit as you eat them.

For breakfast, I enjoyed a bowl of hot soba noodles in a soy sauce-based soup. I added in some wakame seaweed and fluffy agedashi tofu, and topped off the dish with Japanese chili powder and slices of fresh green onion.

Eat Your Natto

Natto is one of those things that you learn to love. The first bite, and you immediately think…what is this?!  Two or three servings later, and you’re hooked. It’s a traditional Japanese dish of fermented soy beans. It’s popular not only for its addictive taste and texture, but there are even scientific studies published on the impressive health benefits of natto. So, my typical breakfast while in Japan looks a little something like this…

The most standard way of enjoying natto is by mixing it with just a drop of mustard and soy sauce and serving it over a bowl of fresh rice. The more you mix the natto, the more gooey and sticky it gets. Some people even say that it enhances the flavour.

If you want to be fancy, it’s also very common to eat it with slices of raw negi (green onion). The photo on the bottom is a picture of natto with negi, and in the photo on top you can see a bunch of different finely chopped veggies together with the natto. This is a mixture of pickled daikon radish, daikon leaves, and carrots that I mixed with vinegar and salt and left for a day or two. It’s the perfect breakfast when I’m craving something savory. Have you ever tried natto? I’d love to know what you thought of it! 😀

Rosemary Hash Browns

For a simple but really fragrant and decadent breakfast, I made these hash browns with roasted baby potatoes and a few handfuls of rosemary from the garden. I love it when the whole kitchen smells like herbs and spices!

Mango Banana Toast with Cashew Butter

A couple weeks ago, I did a post on one of my favorite ways to enjoy toast. It’s almost like having dessert for breakfast! Just grab a slice of fluffy bread, toast it, and top it up with layers of your favorite jams, nut butters, and fruits, plus a sprinkling of cinnamon, hemp seeds, roasted milled flax seeds, or whatever else you like.

I just got my hands on a really sweet, soft bran bread and I thought it would be perfect for trying out another combination of toppings. This time, I went with slices of banana, homemade blackberry jam, and a scoop each of tahini and cashew-brazil nut butter. I topped this off with slices of mango and a sprinkling of cinnamon and freshly ground black pepper. Heavenly.

Sweet Potato and Okra Rice Bowl

For breakfast I put together this delicious rice bowl using my new favorite sweet potato rice. (If you still haven’t tried this, do! Not only are the potatoes steamed to perfection, but the rice also gets steeped in such a gorgeous flavor.) On top of this, I added steamed okra, enoki mushrooms, sliced carrots, and a piece of tofu marinated in rice koji.

I usually go with something sweet for breakfast like banana and date oatmeal, blackberry jam on bread, or a fruit bowl. But the natural sugars brought in by the sweet potatoes, the mushrooms, and the carrots was so satisfying. I am absolutely making this again. Very simple, extremely healthy…and delicious!

Banana Tahini Toast

It honestly tastes like cake! Creamy, rich cake that you can have for breakfast daily and not even think twice about. Just get some good quality bread (here I used whole grain sesame seed bread), and toast it up. Then add on slices of ripe banana drizzled with tahini, your favorite jam, and a dash of cinnamon. One final ingredient that really takes this to the next level is a sprinkle of black pepper. If you’ve never tried this before…I know, it sounds weird right? I heard that in Britain (and probably other places, too), sometimes people use a bit of freshly ground black pepper on fruit desserts, which adds a little kick and actually works to enhance the sweetness. Just make sure you don’t overdo it!

Black Forest Cake Oatmeal

I had a bowl of frozen cherries sitting on the counter, and then the idea struck me. Oatmeal…and chocolate. I’ve never had cherries in my morning oats before, but the combination actually works out great! Into my usual bowl of steel cut oats, I added in a teaspoon of cocoa, a splash of almond milk, crushed walnuts, and a few chunks of dark chocolate. To prep the cherries, I mixed in a scoop of tapioca starch, as a lot of juice comes out of the frozen cherries when they defrost and the starch helps to hold it all together. I then heated the cherries until the juice thickened slightly to get a nice sauce to drizzle on top! This made for the most decadent bowl of Black Forest cake oatmeal.

Coconut Custard with Banana and Rhubarb

I’m at it again with my favorite dessert! Vegan coconut milk custard, ripe banana, and Wheetabix, topped with rhubarb and strawberries from the garden.

…I call it dessert, but truth be told I’ve definitely been known to have it for breakfast on occasion 😛