I found this salad at mmy local asian market and thought it might be pretty neat to try out. I love seaweed salad and this has seaweed, plus other vegetables like carrot mixed in with bean threads and vinegar.
This salad was actually pretty good and had a taste much like seaweed salad. I was expecting the bean thread noodles to be soft, but they were kind of hard and chewy. I wish they were softer, but overall I’d give this salad a 5 out of 10.
I often check out the blog Charade. It give tips on how to live on a student budget which I think is great, even though I’m not even a student anymore! Well she’s having a great week of giveaways so you should go check it out.
Click the link above to go.
Over spring break, the man and I went to Honolulu, which was fantastic. Luckily for him, his birthday was that week also so I took him out to a fancy sushi place for dinner.
While looking through the menu, I saw the natto roll. In case you aren’t familiar, natto is fermented soybeans and is popular in Japan. So, feeling brave, I ordered it along with a couple other rolls. Our waiter tried to warn me about the natto roll, but I persisted that I knew what I was getting into.
There it is, sitting innocently on the plate.
Here’s the sequence of facial expressions as I tried the natto.
As you can see by my facial expressions, natto is not pleasant to say the least. After I ate that piece I started playing with it a little because I heard it gets slimy…
After that it started stinking more so I asked the waiter to take it away. Overall I thought it was an interesting experience and I’m glad I’ve at least tried natto now, but boy was it gross!
A few days ago, I mentioned that I made a stirfry for my bento using some canned mock abalone that I found at an Asian market. Well now it’s time for the review. Here’s what the can looked like. Innocent enough…
After I opened the can up though I was rather disturbed. The abalone really did look like abalone which kind of worried me. Still I knew they had to be eaten, so I drained the liquid out and threw a few into the stirfry.
Once all the vegetables were done I tasted a piece… it was surprisingly good. It had a meaty texture and it was lightly soy sauce flavored. Although the texture and appearance was kind of scary for me because it was so realistic, I still enjoyed the stirfry and ate it all. You can see how it turned out on the left side of this bento.
I give it a 7 out of 10. It tasted good and I enjoyed it, but it’s not going to be something that I start craving.
Last night Jason and I went to Ali Baba’s International Market and got a few items for dinner tonight. One of the great things about Ali Baba’s is their homemade pitas. They are so soft and delicious. So we thought some falafel would be great for our dinner. Fortunately for us, they also make hummus. We found a few interesting products including
It says on the can that its ready to serve, so I just laid them out on a plate. There was a slice of lemon on the bottom of all the stacked pieces, but I threw that part away.
They looked pretty good. Rice covered in grape leaves with oil and lemon juice basically. I was still kind of wary of trying one, but I had to do it.
They were good! My boyfriend and room mate tried them next and both liked them, even more than me I think. I give them a 5 out of 10.
After that I served our falafel with pitas, hummus, and some veggies. The whole dinner turned out to be really good. I have been wary of making falafel w/ pitas since I went to Paris. There Jason and I went to a restaurant that served the best falafel pitas and french fries. I want to go back just to have more! One day I will master their recipe, but for now simple boxed falafel mix will do for me.
I decided to start reviewing vegan products that I try on here along with the meals and bentos I prepare. For my first review I thought I’d start out with something I really love, Silk Live! soy yogurt. I happened upon this brand soy yogurt at Whole Foods a few months ago and have really enjoyed being able to eat yogurt again. They have many flavors in the small single serving containers, but this time I thought I’d get a larger container since I like it so much. It was the first time I’ve had vanilla flavor and it was just as good as the other fruit flavors.
My friend that’s a vegetarian says the soy yogurt isn’t as thick as it’s milk counterpart, but I think the overall flavor and healthiness overcomes that. If you add fresh or dried fruit and/or nuts you have a delicious and healthy snack.
Overall I give this product a 8 out of 10.
