My Neighbor's Flowers: Orange Lilies

My neighbor plants such beautiful flowers. I think they're orange lilies. I'm waiting for the flowers in front of my house to bloom - maybe in a few more weeks. My dad was upset the other day because a ground hog pillaged his garden. It destroyed his rack of sweet peas and ate the cucumber plants and pumpkins leaves. It also took a bite out of one of the tomatoes but must have decided that it didn't like it. The herbs were safe though.

Japanese White Stew

Yesterday, I suddenly got the desire to make white stew. I've never eaten it before, but it looks so good! I used the recipe from this site. The recipe has chicken in it, but I just took it out and added more vegetables. There's also tuna, which you can also take out if you're a vegetarian.

I adjusted the amount of milk too because I realized I had put in too many vegetables - they weren't submerged in the liquid mixture. For someone like me who rarely cooks and has never made stew before, I thought I did a decent job. (The potatoes and carrots could have been cooked a little more.) It certainly came out edible. Hopefully, my parents will like it.

I'll definitely make this again, but probably not anytime soon. Preparing everything was such a hassle. But, then again, I'm sure after a while, I'll find ways to get things done quicker. As as I said before, I don't cook very often.

My Neighbor's Flowers

This doesn't have anything to do with food let alone vegetarianism or pescatarianism, but I wanted to share with everyone this edited picture of my neighbor's flowers. They look like roses, but I can't tell what they are exactly.

Midori Unagidon

My family and I went to Japanese restaurant called Midori Sushi. It's my second time going. Last time I ordered their seafood tempura, which was mediocre. This time, I ordered their unagidon, which is basically sliced eel over rice. The eel is glazed with this sweet sauce, which I'm guessing is a mixture of mirin, soy sauce, and sugar. As you can see in the picture, it also came with ginger, pickled daikon, and cucumbers.


It wasn't the best unagidon. I thought the sauce was too sweet and the rice was too saturated to my liking. I kind of ordered it hastily because the waitress was waiting. I probably won't order it again not necessarily because it was too sweet, but also because it's just too much eel. I need some variety.

Quorn Meatless & Soy-Free Chik'n Nuggets

3-4 nuggets per serving

calories 180

sodium 460mg 19%

protein 10g 20%

Ingredients: 

Mycoprotein (28%), rehydrated egg white, enriched wheat flour (niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), canola oil, onions, textured wheat protein (wheat protein, wheat starch). Contains 2% or less of whey protein concentrate, salt, buttermilk powder, rice flour, dextrose, yeast, garlic powder, autolyzed yeast extract, tapioca starch, pectin, natural flavors from non-meat sources, sunflower oil, ascorbic acid, black and white pepper, citric acid, onion powder, gum arabic, celery seed, calcium lactate, paprika extract, lemon oil 

This is my first time eating meatless and soy-free “chicken” nuggets so I can't compare it to anything else. It's a Quorn product and uses Mycoprotein, a protein source that uses a fungus, Fusarium venenatum, as a primary ingredient.

It's also my first time ever hearing about Mycoprotein. Apparently it's healthy. You can check out the website, mycoprotein.org, to learn more about it.

I was pretty taken back by the product's long list of ingredients. It makes me wary, especially the “natural flavors from non-meat sources.” What's that supposed to mean? The product claims its made from natural ingredients, but the definition of “natural” in the food industry is blurry. Of course, I could be wrong – I'm not a food expert. Let me know if I am.

The product also claims that it doesn't use any ingredients from genetically modified sources.

Taste-wise, I thought they were rather good. It looks like a chicken nugget and had a meat-like texture, but it's not very tender. It's also a little dry and the breadcrumb coating was odd. (I know I'm not being very descriptive.) I got tired of it really quickly, but the first two were quite enjoyable, especially with ketchup.

Unfortunately, I don't think I would buy this again. The length of the ingredients really puts me off.