A Visit to Uwajimaya, and a Vegan for Life Giveaway!

Remember when I went to Barbur World Foods, the fantastic Mediterranean/Middle Eastern grocery store? Uwajimaya is kind of like that, but it's Asia and the size of a Walmart. There is a whole area of cute kitschy Hello Kitty and kitchen supplies and dishes and bentos and woks and rice cookers and chopsticks that I didn't get a photo of, but rest assured it's chock full of every kind, color, and cute design plastic you can imagine. There is also a bookstore inside, but I've never been in there for some reason.

There are stacks of twenty-pound bags of rice, all kinds.


This is the dried seaweed aisle. The whole aisle. Both sides.

Choose your nori!

On the left is the kimchi case. The right-hand case is all pickled vegetables.

Here is where you figure out which miso(s) you want.

Asian greens and other Asian vegetables down this aisle. Multiple kinds of bok choy, some pea tendrils, other greens I don't recognize.

Galangal, loman, turmeric, and random fennel. Also burdock, I think, and bitter melon.

Lotus root!

Fresh kaffir lime leaves and shiso.

Creepy longan and Chinese jujube dates. More on this soon.

Keep a healthy distance from the durien.

This set-up is weird: these cases are all tofu/shiratake on the bottom, and the top half is decidedly not vegan. That's why these photos look a little weird. I am shielding you.

That's Uwajimaya, another of my favorite places to wander! It's a bit of a trek, but my veterinarian is about ten blocks away. It's a small up side to the amount of time we've spent at the vet this year! Spend money at vet, go spend money at Uwajimaya. In my head I allow this to make sense.

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The giveaway! I am excited about this one: it's Vegan for Life! You may remember that I mentioned the lovely people over at Da Capo Lifelong have been extra-lovely this month, and have furnished a number of titles for giveaways on this blog. Please consider having a look at their website, and/or following them on Twitter and Facebook, because they are seriously generous. They also publish beautiful and useful vegan books, like this informative but easy-to-read guide.


From the website: Vegan for Life is your comprehensive, go-to guide for optimal plant-based nutrition. Registered dietitians and long-time vegans Jack Norris and Virginia Messina debunk some of the most persistent myths about vegan nutrition and provide essential information about getting enough calcium and protein, finding the best supplements, and understanding the "real deal" about soy. Covering everything from a six-step transition plan to meeting calorie and nutrient needs during pregnancy and breastfeeding, Vegan for Life is the guide for aspiring and veteran vegans alike, complete with an easy-to-use food chart, tasty substitutions, sample menus, and expansive resources.

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment below. Tell me something that keeps you vegan, your favorite vegan nutrition tip, or anything at all. This giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada, but others this month will be open to everybody everywhere. The winner will be chosen by random number generator and posted tomorrow below tomorrow's giveaway. If you win a giveaway on this blog at some point this month, please be kind and don't enter further giveaways--I'd love as many people to win something as possible!

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The giveaway for the Tofu XPress continues here!

The winner of the Gobble Green Dinner Kit is awesomeveganrad! Congratulations! Please send your name and address to me at miso...@yahoo.com. (<---make sure to click on the . . . link for the rest of the email address. This is a spam avoidance thing.)