Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Vegan Mofo, Day 1 — Favorite Food!

It's the Vegan Month of Food, otherwise known as Vegan Mofo. If you're not a vegan or a regular blog reader, I should let you know that Vegan Mofo is an internet phenomenon that's been going on for years. Vegan bloggers commit to blogging every day of the month, and there are themes and prompts to help us along. The month changes sometimes, but it's always in the fall.


I didn't think I was going to do Mofo this year, until about 3 p.m. this afternoon. I failed to sign up to get listed on the official Vegan Mofo blogroll (which you can find here), and I thought, well, maybe that is a sign that I shouldn't bother. I already blog five days a week, but committing to seven days is tough. Plus, while prompts are fun, they can also mean more time in the kitchen trying to make things that adhere to daily themes.

But I'm having serious Mofo Fomo, so I'm jumping in. Since I'm not signed up, I guess I'm a bit of a Mofo bandit, but whatever. I plan to try my best to stick with the daily themes! Today's theme is Favorite Food! And that one is easy. Y'all already know what it is, right?


Yep, RAMEN NOODLES. If I were stranded on an island and could only have one food item, I'd be perfectly content with a giant box of instant noodles. I eat ramen at least once a week, sometimes more often. Most times, like in the bowl above, I use baked Koyo noodles, cubed tofu, and frozen mixed veggies. Here's my 2015 Mofo Guide to Making Ramen, btw.

Other times, I go all crazy and make fancy ramen with mock meats and even homemade tofu "boiled eggs," like in this recipe from Meet the Shannons.


I also use a lot of rice noodles. I'll buy the Annie Chun's brown rice noodles and prepare them with a veggie broth, and then I add baked tofu and whatever veggies I find in my fridge.


And then there are the times that I get SUPER lazy and head over to Crazy Noodle, our local Korean noodle shop, for a bowl of their Mandu Ramen — ramen with vegetable dumplings!


I love ramen so much that I even wrote a (crappy) poem about it when I was in high school back in 1997. I published a zine called Frenzy, and this little poem appeared in an issue. I've printed this on my blog before, but it's been years.

My Ode to Ramen Noodles

Long, graceful
Swirling
Out of your
Rectangular
Block as the
Water boils you
To deliciousness.
Mixing in the 
Packet of flavor
Your tan becomes
Darker
And Spicy.

5 comments:

Susan said...

I LOVE your poem!
Glad you decided to MoFo as well. :D

Hillary said...

I always love reading about your Ramen dishes, it inspires me to get more creative!
I agree with Susan, I'm glad you're doing Mofo too!

J said...

Yay, happy to hear you are joining in on Vegan MoFo! Your ramen dishes all look amazing!

Sarah said...

Yay, happy Mofo! I'm excited to see your posts! I am so with you, ramen is amazing! It is one of my winter staples and I love all of the different ways that you've prepared it! Definitely going to inspire some ramen dishes on my table this winter.

Katie said...

I love this so much and probably, definitely have a new goal in life: eat more RAMEN.