Masu Sushi & Robata - sushi, drinks, appetizer

Masu Sushi & Robata has made several "best-of" lists since it opened a few years ago. I finally made it out to the NE Mpls location (they have opened a second location at the Mall of America).

Masu is great! They have a separate vegetarian/vegan menu as well as a gluten-free menu.

For an appetizer, I had some vegetable tempura. Delicious! A good mix of squash, eggplant, and other veggies:



Also had a great vegetable sushi roll. I think this was called a firecracker? Had some veggies rolled up with rice and nori, then coated in crushed wasabi peas and some sriracha/hot sauce over the top. Awesome:



I also had a delicious drink and brought home a caterpillar roll (vegan-style) for Mr. Coconut.

Veggie Sushi!

Sorry for the bad photo, but the sushi is actually quite good. I'm able to get this slightly overpriced but at least freshly made sushi on campus. This is one of two veggie varieties offered: two big "mushroom shitake salad" rolls, and six smaller avocado and carrot rolls. I already spread wasabi on these and poured soy sauce on them, so they look weird. Plus it's hard to focus or get good light in this particular room.

Christmas 2007

Happy New Year!

To celebrate, let's look at some of the last big meals I had during Christmas 2007:


First off, a more traditional meal with a Tofurky, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, peas, stuffing, gravy, and dumplings:



This was my second Tofurky ever, and it was actually good. The dumplings that came with the Tofurky Feast did not work out for me, but it was fun to try them. I made the mashed potatoes (skin-on) and I made the extra stuffing, which was REALLY easy. I simply melted a lot of Earth Balance with veggie stock on the stovetop, and poured the hot mixture over the crispy bread chunks. The gravy was from the tofurky feast as well.

Next, a picture of some veggie sushi from another Christmas meal I went to:



The sushi consisted of avocado, carrot and cucumber wrapped with nori and sushi rice. A giant bowl of pickled ginger and the not pictured wasabi rounded off the appetizer. I cannot take any credit whatsoever for making the sushi, it came courtesy of Super Target.

There was also homemade bruschetta and the main star: pesto lasagna roll ups with a "meaty" sauce. Unfortunately, it was all eaten very quickly before I had a chance to take any pictures because it was SO GOOD. I promise that sometime VERY soon I will recreate the recipe and take many photos.

There was also an excellent vegan chocolate mousse, but no pictures.

More food from 2007 to come!

Bento Birthday Box

This is a dinner from Midori's Floating World Cafe, a Japanese restaurant in Minneapolis. This is from their special all vegan menu, which is available only at the restaurant and only if you ask. If you click the picture, it should bring you to Flickr where I labeled the picture.

clockwise, starting with the rice:
tempura veggies
veggie sushi rolls
soba noodles and wakame
fruit
pickled ginger and pickled veg in center

I also had some agedashi tofu, a special vegan version (dashi = fish broth, and the agedashi tofu is usually served with bonito (fish) flakes. At Midori's they serve it with a shitake broth, and nori strips.)