Japan

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Around the World in 80 Plates: Miso Soup, Japan 3/80

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Ever bought those little packets of instant miso soup? It’s mainly powder with a few pieces of dehydrated tofu and spring onions. Maybe some seaweed if you’re lucky.

It’s as easy to prepare as making a cup of tea but once you’ve made your own from scratch, you’ll never go back to the instant stuff again.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the heartiest (and easiest) miso soup you can have at home, but you’ve got to make it yourself.

Don’t worry, once you know where to get the ingredients, it’s pretty simple to make.
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There aren’t enough meals in the day

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Two years ago when I started travelling, I was focused on museums, history and whatever else my trusty guidebook said was important. I spent most of my time on the tourist trail.

It was good. It was interesting. But I wasn’t getting the real feel for the place. I remembered each city by what I saw, not what I experienced.

Eventually, that turned into hanging out with new friends through CouchSurfing and I would remember the cities by what I did.

Now, I remember them by what I eat.
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Travelling through food in Vancouver

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I recently returned from a 4-day trip to Vancouver, British Columbia. For a $13 Amtrak ticket, it couldn’t be passed up. Once I decided to go, I discovered my Dutch CouchSurfing host from Amsterdam last year had just moved there, a Chinese surfer I met in Bellingham could host me and there were a few CouchSurfing meetings organized for the Cherry Blossom Festival and Vancouver’s 125th Birthday Celebrations! I knew the four days would be packed with CouchSurfing activities, but in the end, the focus was all on food.
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Book review – Hokkaido Highway Blues: Hitchhiking Japan by Will Ferguson

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A few months ago I read Hokkaido Highway Blues: Hitchhiking Japan (also under the title Hitching Rides With Buddha) by Will Ferguson and it’s recently been on my mind. Between Japan being hit with an earthquake and tsunami, the sakura zensen (cherry blossom front) passing the country and my current week-long trip to Vancouver where I’m attending a Cherry Blossom event, it feels very applicable today. While it didn’t completely enthrall me like a really good book would, it was still a book I couldn’t put down because I knew it was teaching me really interesting and culturally important stuff.
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