easternsun

My list includes: Bragg Vegemite Mae Ploy yellow and green Sweet chili sauce Tinned cubed tomatoes Coconut Milk (I WOULD make my own if I had a coconut tree ) Nutella Frozen edamame Nayonnaise (not a typo!) I do have a bottle of Heinz Ketchup but I dont recall using it this year...it is specifically purchased for fried egg sandwiches. (my hang-over cure )

After ten years of asking I recently received the family perogy recipe My (Step) Grandmother is Ukranian and makes potato/cottage cheese or potato/onion perogies. She boils them and puts them in a casserole dish with what must be a pound of melted butter and green onion. They are swimming in the stuff! I was in my twenties before I discovered they could also be fried. I cant share the recipe but I will say that the "special ingredient" is Cream of Tartar.

I will add my thanks for a great blog! The pics of English Bay were lovely - exactly the route I used to run (right before scarfing eggs benny with my mates somewhere on Davie) I was ok until the shot of the Sleemans and the greek food....I broke down had a little cry The greatest thing to come out of this week was the inspiration to make 'leedle peeples food' look as good as 'grown folks grub' THANKS! darn typos!

I have questions about GMOs and tofu in Japan. I started buying a brand of tofu that is labelled NON GMO but I am wondering why I dont see more labelling like this. Do you often see NON GMO labels on tofu in your area? edited to say that my understanding was that since 2001 Japan must label GM foods so why is this brand (Nakashita) labelling as NON GMO ? Have the rules changed? Is it just so people like me will buy their tofu

Kristin what kind of sauce did you make for this? I have been eating a lot of hiyyayako and okra these days but I have been using dashi shoyu. I need myouga ! That dish looks great to me and myouga gives it such a nice little dash of colour.

oooh rona, shall we meet up for ashtanga, depachika and lunch? you are going to love sogo. i was out for dinner on saturday and i noticed quite a few new restaurants in shinsaibashi including what looks like a fabulous new vietnamese place in ame-mura.

is it me or does there seem to be a bit of a maple boom going on right now?? i have a homestay student from italy at the moment and she has been indulging in all the conbini treats so i am getting an education on what is "hot" for snacks her latest purchase was macadamia and maple flavoured "takenoko". they are very sweet and have a distinct maple flavour.

I always eye those pizzas at CostCo but what I cant figure out is how people cook them. I have a pretty large oven but I would still have to bake it in sections. I have this funny image of people doing individual slices in the toaster oven What is all this sqaure pizza madness?? Recent flyer from the home delivery places have square pizzas too..... The mango drink is screw up your face sickly sweet - but my nieces love it!

I thought it worth a mention to anyone travelling through Osaka to try to visit the SOGO department store on Midou-suji (Shinsaibashi Subway Station). The store opened this week and it is a thing of beauty! The food floor is stunning. At the moment, the vendors are offering samples of just about everything! And you dont need to make a lunch reservation Since Daimaru is right next to SOGO, I am hoping for some serious price wars to keep the good stuff affordable and in my shopping basket.

I am partial to the Kansai area as well but agree with Anzu that unless you have an agenda, Osaka is really not worth visiting (says the girl who lives in Osaka). Funny enough, I am on my way to Minoh and the waterfall today - I will try to have maple tempura and report back here. Kyoto, Nara, and Himeji are all wonderful. I was in Takayama in June and stayed at a temple which is part of the hostel association. I HIGHLY recommend staying in hostels. They are CHEAP, fabulous, clean and comfortable, which is more than I can say for some of the 15,000 yen a night closets I have stayed in!!! It will give you the extra yen for some of those finer dining moments you are sure to want to experience. I am sure you know already but get a Japan Rail pass and you will save heaps of yen...

Were they maple/butter pretz? They are my favourite! It has the perfect butter to maple syrup flavour ratio. If you like pancakes, you will loves these little sticks from heaven

Wow! My mom is so fired! The fact that you put so much care into making Noah's meals LOOK good is wonderful! I am still following along with pangs of homesickness. Even the picture of the traffic did it for me I hope part of your reno plan includes a ten foot wall around your property ...your are going to need it when Noah hits his teens ... he is such a cutey! and he does dishes!

Thanks! easternsun, how long has it been since you lived in Vancouver? ← I was born and raised in Vangroovy. I left eight years ago to live in Japan and I usually get home once a year - last year I spent six months in India and this year I paid for my Dad to come over for two weeks. I am already counting down to next summer when I can indulge in the comforts of home again. Any chance you will be strolling over from The Drive for GELATI?

I am really enjoying the blog! The photos are making me really homesick

i had a question about the cold canned coffee. my japanese teacher told me that there are no less than 8 teaspoons of sugar in a can of cold coffee. does anyone know if this is true, and if it is...what is the reason behind it? smallworld, i too like warming my hands on a hot can of coffee in the winter! sometimes i buy two and put them in my pockets

thanks for the advice. i had the "men in charge of fire" put the fish on first - before the meat and when the grill was still clean. it turned out lovely. i had planned to take pictures of our little rooftop bbq party but it rained and rained and then it rained some more

i want to make tandoori fish for a bbq party tomorrow. i know nothing about bbqing. will tandoori work on the grill?

eggs yes! mustard yes! and i am afraid to say that i add a bit of milk and dill as well. potato salad makes me think of gigantic bowls of the stuff at family functions . in japan, i often find boiled carrot is added to the mix. this is found in the conbini favourite - the potato salad sandwich

why exactly does low-fat yoghurt work better than full fat yoghurt? how hot is a hot oven for tandoori chicken?

i love depachika! i have very fond memories of the food floor of woodwards department store in downtown vancouver (sadly, it is gone)...depachika brings it all back for me. these days i am at kintetsu (osaka) almost daily. i can get the freshest produce and usually buy whatever is on sale that day. i buy all our seafood there as well. i like being able to talk to the vendors about the best way to prepare or store what ever i am buying. sorry i cant help you with tokyo though

so is anyone counting? do the "yes" people win yet i just got a new okra/tofu recipe ...but i cant post it here i will report back with details and blurry pics soon

when i was a kid i liked blue cheese dressing. now i like balsamic. i dont think i have ever tried ranch dressing but the chips are fabulous in sandwiches i loved the article though, thanks for the link! BarabaraY ==>what's in thousand islands anyway? ketchup, mayonnaise and pickles i really dont know...i just remember the coagulated mess that i had to spoon on salads at my first job: phone girl at a delivery pizza place i will never touch the stuff. if ranch IS the new thousand islands, that is probably a good thing.

i guess some of my exotic eats would fall into the unidentifiable category. turtle blood was one i hope never to repeat. i had to chase it with scotch.

ok not in vancouver, but still worthy of a mention: in osaka, japan cafe boobs bar vulva i WISH i was joking