Yukitchen - Vegetarian food art by Yuki

Rilakkuma Inari

In 1967, John Lennon wrote a song called “All you need is love”. He also admitted hitting women, “any women”, he said, and abandoned one of his children. He was a diligent peace activist, and wrote many songs about love and peace. He explained, “This is why I am always about peace, you see. It’s…

Pumpkin Smoothie with Soot Sprites

These are “Makkuro-Kurosuke” from My Neighbor Totoro, and also “Susuwatari” from Spirited Away. The translated version of their names often disappoints me, because it’s just “Soot Sprites”. Soot Sprites…. I got the sentiments, but it kills the subtlety of Japanese goodness when I see the word “sprites”, -a supernatural entity in European mythology (i.e. Wikipedia). To us…

Pacman Furofuki Daikon

You see, I gained 7 pounds around the time when I made this recipe. It’s just 7 pounds, and I know that it’s silly to worry about such a minor predicament; I have much bigger problems to deal with. But Japanese women, I believe, actually feel the same as western women about weight; we desire the…

Vegan Ramen With a Global Warming Polar Bear

Finding ramen without meat isn’t really an easy search. But it’s always easy to wonder if you can improvise the taste of ramen using plant-based items. I make a lot of vegan and vegetarian recipes here on Yukitchen, but making the world vegan is not my mission here. That would be supremacy, and no supremacy…

Choco-Banana Rilakkuma Toast

This week I purchased a western food called “Nutella” for the first time in my life. I’m aware that Nutella is a wildly common food throughout the US and Europe, but not in Japan. I lived in the states for seven years, yet I promised myself never to lose my Bushido (the way of a samurai)…

Ninjaga (Vegan Nikujaga)

Ninjas are definitely getting fewer nowadays. But just a few hundred years ago in Japan during the Edo period, there were still so many of them. One day, the shogun, -the military leader of Japan, invited a ninja to his castle. I mean, who wouldn’t? Shoguns are just like us; we all want to meet ninjas! So when…

Rilakkuma Burger

For the past couple of years, I’ve been on a quest for making the perfect veggie burgers. It’s been a quite mission to create the burgers that have everything that we need. But I think I’m finally comfortable enough to announce to the world that I’ve reached my goal today. My veggie burgers have finally hit my high…

Rilakkuma Mitarashi Dango

I wonder if you have seen such a color as soft and chewy as Mitarashi amber. The golden glaze is made of soy sauce and sugar, and it covers the pearl-like sticky rice cake as known as “dango”, in Japanese. This is Mitarashi Dango, and all Japanese grew up with Mitarashi Dango, especially around 3…

Panda Tapioca Milk Tea With Panda Boba

When I had my first tapioca milk tea, I was a student at UCSD. I was at a “Tapioca Express” AKA “Tapex” on Convoy Street after school, getting in a queue with a bunch of Asian Americans with my heavy backpack filled with textbooks. Asians in the states love Boba, and I became one of…

Nigaoe(Caricature) Cookies

“Nigaoe(似顔絵)”(ni-gah-oh-eh) is a caricature. It’s a portrait realistically drawn by capturing or deforming the appearance and characteristics of a person. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always loved drawing nigaoe. I find people’s faces fascinating. It’s the wrinkles, the freckles, and the idiosyncrasies on their faces that I find them so beautiful. And the…