tokyo doujiang seikatsu

I had to run an errand on Friday in Gotanda so I went to eat lunch at Tokyo Doujiang Seikatsu.

This tiny shop serves Taiwan style breakfast.

Soy milk soup called shendujyan.

The flavors reminded of this soup.

It kind of looked the same too.

I also ordered a scallion pork "bun" called tsonrousupin...flaky outside with a little sweetness to it.

Lots of pork and scallions inside...so good!

Loved the flavors of the soup and bun.

I also took home a peanut "bun" called foashenpin.

How cute is the package?!

Tiny...

But filled to the gills with crunchy peanut paste and so flaky too!

Afterwards, I read online that they put lard into their dough...well, no wonder it was so flaky!

The outside kind of reminded me of Hawaii-Chinese mai tai su or Hawaii-Japanese pie crust manju.

They have several different types of soy milk soups as well as different types of "buns".

I'll be back to try other items when I am in the area.

Tokyo Doujiang Seikatsu
1-20-3 Nishigotanda
Shinagawa, Tokyo
Phone: 03.6417.0335
Closed Sundays
Hours: 8:00-14:00

kondo tofu

Bought some items from Kondo Tofu the other day...Oboro tofu (round container)...250 yen, a cup of freshly pressed soy milk...140 yen and 1 piece of aburaage...90 yen.

Everything was so cheap and delicious!

The cup of freshly pressed soy milk was their last one for the day, was glad to be able to try it! definitely different from the soy milk the markets sell.

The oboro tofu was so huge that I made two batches of kim chee miso soup (recipe below).

For the soup, super easy recipe (for 2 servings)
300 milliliters water
2 teaspoons miso
25 grams kim chee
1/2 oboro tofu (about 150 grams)

In two bowls, put a teaspoon miso in each
In a pot, heat the water and put the tofu in to heat
Divide the heated water between the two bowls and mix to dissolve the miso
Divide the tofu between the two bowls.
Top with kim chee.

NOTES: you could substitute dashi (stock) in place of the water, but since I didn't make dashi ahead of time, I just used water and it still had a lot of flavor.

The weather is getting cooler, some areas of Japan already have snow.

Hope the weather is nice where you are.

taiwan style soy milk soup

Made this Taiwan-style Soy Milk Soup last night.

The cookbook that I found the recipe in says to make this soup when you are tired of eating out.

Taiwan-style Soy Milk Soup adapted from "Soup Stock Tokyo 2" : makes 4 servings
Soboro
120 grams minced chicken (or pork)
50 cc water (1/4 cup)
5 grams takuan (minced), optional
nub of ginger, grated
1 tablespoon shoyu
1 teaspoon sugar

Furikake
2 tablespoons jakko (dried young sardines)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon fried onion
1 teaspoon white sesame seed
2 tablespoons cashew (or peanuts), finely chopped

Soup
2 dried shiitake, reconstituted
200 cc water (1 cup)
600 cc soymilk (3 cups)
salt to taste

Toppings
cilantro
1 teaspoon black vinegar (per serving)
croutons
chili oil

Make the soboro. Soboro literally means "minced".
In a pan, put the water, meat, takuan, shoyu, sugar and ginger
On medium heat, break up the meat while cooking
Cook until all the liquid has evaporated

Make the furikake.
In a frying pan, heat the oil and add the jakko.
When it is coated with the oil, add the fried onion, sesame seeds and nuts
Saute until fragrant and crispy

Make the soup.
Reconstitute the shiitake then slice thinly.
Strain the reconstituted shiitake water and put in the soup.
Add the soymilk and salt to taste.
Heat but do not boil.

To serve: add 1 tablespoon of soboro, 1 tablespoon of furikake, ladle in soup.
Top with some cilantro, croutons, chili oil and 1 teaspoon black vinegar.
*if you do add the vinegar, the soup will curdle/thicken slightly.

NOTES: a bit tedious but super comforting soup.

I forgot to put the vinegar when we had this last night, but will try it tonight with the leftovers.

This winter has been quite harsh, and soup has been a nice way to warm up.

soy milk yogurt

We recently tried soy milk (tonyu in Japanese) yogurt.

It is quite thick, but I like that there is no sugar (or fake sweeteners) added to it.

Am glad there are more choices these days for food items.

foodie couple of days

The other night Satoshi had a party to attend to for the Hyatt. I think everyone received this "goodie bag"--pancake mix, maple syrup, darjeeling tea, herb tea & a black insulated bag for lunches. Can't wait to make the pancakes, though I want to serve it with bacon. I want to try making candied bacon. Got the idea from Kathy's blog.

The other day I had a lesson at Starbucks. Since the lesson was in the morning I had a muffin with my coffee. This is their soy milk banana muffin. I'm glad they heated this up, it was really dry. Can you imagine how it would have been if it were straight out of their refrigerated case? I don't think they use the actual fruit, just banana flavoring. I think if they used the fruit it would have been moist. Oh and the big slice of banana on top was a banana chip.

The Japanese love to shorten words. It gets to the point where they themselves don't know what the actual word is or means...yipes! A donut shop equivalent to Dunkin Donuts is MisDo (short for Mister Donut). I usually don't frequent this place, but had a craving for donuts, so this was the only place (unless you live in Tokyo where they have Krispy Kreme and Doughnut Planet) to get a donut fix. I got the double matcha ring & coconut chocolate donut.

The matcha ring was soft, chewy. I think they use the holes from the other donuts to make this. This one had just enough sweetness.

The coconut one was a cake donut. Kind of dry but the coconut on the outside was delicious.

Did you all watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics? I cannot believe that I watched it from beginning to end. Well, actually I cheated, since we have a two screen television, I had it on, but surfed and watched other things on the other half while I waited for them to light the torch almost 3 hours after the ceremonies started!

Hope your weekend is going well, it is Saturday here but Satoshi is working.