Always on the hunt for Vegan friendly food! See what I've discovered this month!
AEON
When posting some of the finds of this trip on my Instagram stories, I got a lot of questions on where to find them. I realize that unfortunately every AEON is different. This one recently apparently got upgraded to Vegan Heaven...!!
The soy meats are from MUJI, which I reviewed here. The sesame wagashi is one of my favorites and just a lucky find. The Marusan coffee soy drinks on the bottom were discounted, but also quite disappointing in flavor. The Kikkoman Baked Sweet Potato is just a must-buy wherever I go! The soy meat bolognese from AEON I've also had before and loved, so stocking up... And lastly, the Tofu Protein soy meat I loved and made ramen with!
Sweets
Fancy seeing you here! - Veganz is a German brand with delicious Vegan products. Not only did they make their way to Japan, but I found these extremely addictive cookies (they are gone by the time I'm writing this post..) along with their lemon and chocolate cookies, and granola snack bags at AEON, of all places!
This "Apple Chocolate" from Morozoff was displayed in between the supermarket and the Wagashi shop. I did not buy them this time, which I may or may not regret at this very moment, but you can mix any 3 bags for ￥1000 - with some of the senbei and perhaps another of the dark chocolates Vegan friendly too!
At another AEON in the area, I found this Quinoa chips I had been eyeballing for a while. I used to eat these all the time, while living in Scotland. Where they were affordable. And often discounted to 0.88P in the sale... *teardrop*. Now for nearly ￥400, I guess they are for... special occasions.
Instant Meals
Hyped to find this insane selection of Vegan friendly instant meals. As part of Mayumi Nishimura's Macrobiotic line-up, available at AEON's "Glam Beautique", these meals are easy and super accessible and could be a real game changer!
I tried the Soy Milk Potage, simply because I never had anything like this before. The flavor was nice - not very strong, as often with macrobiotic dishes, but I didn't feel the need to add anything either. The potage was a lot thinner than I expected and not as creamy, but as I've never had it before, that may just be my wrong perception. It's a bit expensive, but if you're looking for an effortless, Vegan, healthy instant dinner for one, this is perfect! I'm looking forward to trying other options.
If you search carefully, you'll sometimes find Japanese bread. I finally found this Raisins and Cranberry bun I had seen on other people's SNS for a while. The only allergen is wheat, and it is made by Takaki Bakery - the maker of the allergens free Christmas cake sold by AEON/Lawson/Family Mart! The butter is the Marinfood Vegan butter from Belc (see below!)
BELC Supermarket
Belc is a supermarket chain in the Kanto area that praises itself for its "cheap and delicious" offerings. We visited one of the stores that opened this year and had a look for Vegan finds.
So excited to find Glico's Vegan pudding and Marinfood's Vegan butter at Belc as well!
DELI
The first pleasant surprise came at the deli food area, with several veggie sushi: Ume-natto, Onion Miso, Burdock, Cucumber, etc. Although you'd have to check with the staff to confirm the ingredients. Most seem Vegan friendly - and very well prices. The Negi-miso was really good!
The "handmade" Miso onigiri was Vegan too - and very delicious at that! A nice change from the usual conbini offerings.
For Cooking
Yes!! These are the finds we're going for! Yonekyu is a meat company - and we found two Soy Meat products in Belc's freezers! The Mapo Tofu was unfortunately not Vegan, but this Mapo Nasu (eggplant) seems to be! The company has recently introduced a huge veggie line up in response to COVID and "the more health- and ethical concerned consumer". They don't specifically target vegetarians and vegans, but decided to offer a delicious, healthy and protein rich line up so that people can "choose not to eat meat". A great step forward! - I'm looking forward to try this.
Soy Milks
Can we for a second just appreciate the HUGE choice of Vegan/plantbased milks, especially in comparison with the tiny number of dairy on the right!
I have tried a lot of them already, with Otsuka's "ミルクのようなダイズ" (soy like milk), Kikkoman's Black Tea soy milk and Sujahta's Golden Sesame soy milk as some of my favorites.
I had seen the Black Sesame - Sweet potato and Hakata Amao Strawberry soy milks before in some of the more luxury/health stores, but haven't tried them. The Amao had a really soft sweetness and at the first sip definitely reminded me of the Amao I had living in Fukuoka! The Marusan indeed had a strong sweet potato flavor, but I prefer Kikkoman's.
Desserts
Papico is your friend! With different flavors, changing throughout the season, there usually is one (or two) options somewhere near you. And if you have to travel a bit - melting won't be as bad as with other ice creams! I have tried many of the Vegan friendly flavors, and I love the Vegetable-mix editions, but this one (Tomato Orange) is new to me!
I LOVE the coffee flavored Soy ice cream and have tried the vanilla before too. Belc offers all three options, so I figured I may try the Strawberry one too!
Look who I found just casually hanging about in the Tofu section, waiting for an overly excited Vegan to pop by! Tofu Donuts made from Kinu Tofu by a famous Tofu company! They get really good reviews online, are cheap! (138￥) and I love some of their other products, so I can't wait to try them!
DONKI HOTE
Don Don Don Donkiiii, Donki Ho-teeeeee ♪ The song will stay with you for days, but if I find new Vegan treats, it's all worth it.
When I heard the Ritz Vanilla and Chocolate cream were both Vegan friendly, I tried to find them everywhere and finally found them at good ol' Donki. They are exactly what to expect: Super sweet, super artificial, followed by super salty. A dreamy junkfood combination that makes it way too tempting to eat the whole pack. Or Both.
It's fruit, so it's OK right? I love the Peach version, but had never seen the Ranbutan or Watermelon versions yet. As the latter was a bit cheaper, I went with that one. SO GOOD!
GYOUMU SUPER
I don't think I ever left Gyoumu super disappointment... (maybe just in my salary)
I mean...
These totilla chips are heaven and I eat them by myself in one week. End of notification. The Cacao cookies turned out the contain honey! The regular Oat version is fine and delicious.
You don't know what I've been through to get to the picture on the right... We eat these spice cakes (not to confuse with space cake, which we also eat...) in the Netherlands a lot, even though these ones are from Belgium. So whe4n I heard they were at Gyoumu. I went on a 2 hour journey (trains + 2 x 40 minute walk) to get to the gyoumu that had them. And then I had to wait 2 weeks before I could find a shop with Vegan butter... #inaka
Yes, I've tried this Hummus before already. And yes, homemade is better. BUT this is easier; and... they said I deserve it.
As for the Halva; I have no idea what it is. But it's Vegan and Turkish. that's all I needed. Will try soonish.
TBC...
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