Food in Japan has been an interesting experience… Being a vegetarian, it’s been hard not to come across meat accidentally. Be it in rice balls, or beneath some pefectly innocent-looking noodles. I thought I was the kind of vegetarian that hated even the thought of animal oils touching my veggies, but it turns out that starvation, and expensive food sometime work wonders on your morality.
That being said, I’ve still made the attempt to eat as comfortably as possible. Afterall, the reasons for my vegetarianism are for economic and social and environmental reasons, and not so much in the ‘animal consciousness’ vein (by not so much, i mean not at all). At this point, meat seems just gross, devouring corpses and eating flesh just seems extremely repulsive. So although I’ve been upset when I find accidental meat in my meals, I’ve actually been just eating around it.
As many of you know, I love breakfast. I will eat breakfast for every meal of the day. In Japan, however, it has been hard enough to find a rice or noodle dish without meat, let alone breakfast!
Enter the Royal Host…
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sweet, sweet Royal Host.
In the evening, Royal Host seems like your average ‘Japanese-Take on American Dining’ Restaurant. It has steak, and Chicken Fingers, as well as the Japanese basics of Fish, Tempura, Rice, Noodles, etc. But in the morning is where it truly becomes my breakfast paradise. PANCAKES! FRENCH TOAST! RE-FILLABLE COFFEE! EGGS ANYWAY YOU WANT THEM! For the past week I have been going nearly every day at 8am to wake up, have several cups of coffee, get filled and read, all while listening to the CBC World News at 6 (EST) Podcast.
Besides breakfast, I’ve learned what to look for and what to ask about. Tofu at the grocery store comes SO cheap and you can get it in any variety (deepfried, soft, firm, and even in patties!) and is so versatile in cooking. Or should I say “cooking”. Egg and/or Tofu sandwiches with Ketchup seem to be the food of choice these days, but mostly because I was waiting for my first paycheck. I look forward to learning how to cook Japanese Vegetarian cuisine and furthermore, finding interesting ways to use the plethora of Tofu!
It might seem as though I’m looking for a typical Wester cop-out to eating Japanese food, but you have to understand that as a vegetarian, if you don’t find a specifically vegetarian restaurant, you’re going to get meat. It’s just the Japanese way, so to find staples like breakfast and grocery store tofu (they have a whole section! it’s as big as the dairy sections!!) has been an absolute life saver!
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