Embroidering Again

Crafts have always been around and were encouraged ever since I was a child. My family is full of creatives, whether it is art in the form of quilting, sewing, Watercolor painting, Craft painting, music, woodworking, or gardening, among so many others. It was not hard to find inspiration and encouragement when it came to expressing myself through art, no matter what medium I decided to try that day. 

I knew at a very young age that I found the most pleasure in drawing and painting, but I always enjoyed trying my hand at many of the other mediums, and that included embroidering and cross-stitch. 

After junior high, when I was more into cross-stitch, I didn't revisit stitching until 2010 when I started working at a local needlepoint shop here in Philadelphia. I worked there from 2010 until 2016. Working in retail has its struggles, but I did discover that I do still enjoy stitching, particularly embroidery. To me, embroidery is a very easy transition from painting. You are pretty much drawing and painting in thread. 

I haven't designed my own patterns yet, but I have worked from some I found in books or purchased transfer patterns for. 

Recently when I decided to start making food from my favorite anime I decided that I wanted to finally embroider some napkins. These will officially be used in a future blog post (you'll have to come back to see what recipe I feature them with), but I thought it would be fun to post these finished pieces here to show the other kinds of art I enjoy pursuing when I'm not painting and drawing on paper.

I got these patterns from a Japanese embroidery book I bought at Kinokuniya in NYC. It is by Yumiko Higuchi, whose website you can see here. These were quick and fun little projects, a couple of them taking only a couple hours to finish. I definitely plan on doing more projects from this book.  

Another project I finished a few weeks ago is one that I have been working on for over a year. I haven't spent a lot of time on it though, since I've been more preoccupied with painting, but when I finished the napkins I knew that I needed to finish this one before I start any other embroidery projects. 

This project is made from a Sublime Stitching design. I love Sublime Stitching's designs. They are all contemporary designs, and are great for encouraging younger stitchers to get into the craft. Definitely check out their website. There are lots of designs, many of which you can purchase PDFs of to download to your computer instead of purchasing the physical copy (if you don't want to wait for it to come in the mail to get started on your next project), and they even sell stitching supplies and threads too!  I can attest that their stitching accessories are super cute! 

I plan on getting a cute little frame to hang this up on my wall by the front door. It is the perfect entryway piece for my apartment.

When I purchased the pack of grey handkerchiefs I also purchased a pack of white ones too, and I have been debating what I want to stitch on them. I have another idea for a future recipe post that I may incorporate into this project....check back later to see what I come up with.

If you have any favorite embroiderers or pattern companies you like to use let me know! I am always interested in finding new inspiration for my crafting projects. :)

Addicted to Curry...and other food anime

Food has a way of bringing people together. When you eat a good meal you get to enjoy the combination of the tastes each ingredient brings to the dish. In addition to all the good flavors of the actual food, you can enjoy the memories that come with that meal, whether it is from creating the recipe, adapting it from a family favorite, or the memory of sharing it with friends, family and loved ones. 

Food-centric anime manages to bring all of these things together. There are a number of types of plots that center around food in anime and manga. You have the food competitions, life in a restaurant plots (which usually combines a young cook eager to learn with an expert who teaches them the trade), and the every day slice of life plots that bring in your every-day life with wonderful looking food.

I decided that I would combine my interest in anime, manga, and food to create some blog posts that would introduce you to not only specific recipes but also anime and manga that feature delicious looking food. I am vegan and wanted to find a way to bring to life the foods I have seen (sometimes often) in anime and manga, and make them vegan. 

One of my favorite series is one that has not been distributed in the US yet. It is called Addicted to Curry. It is created by Kazuki Funatsu. The main character is a young curry chef named Makito Koenji. In the beginning of the series he is down on his luck and ends up collapsed outside a curry restaurant named Ganesha, which happens to be owned by the other main character, Yui Sonezaki's, father. 

Their meeting spurs a relationship that brings the two of them together to not only discover and create new curry recipes that will appeal to the locals and the (many) curry fans that end up coming by each chapter. Makito's main goal is to find his father, and Yui's AWOL father, who is a mentor of his, promised to help him find him, so Makito decides to stay until he returns.

The series combines comedy, competition, romance, and some drama. Not only that, but the author has clearly researched curry and loves the topic because the detail is exceptional, and there are often recipes to go along with each new curry creation. 

One of the recipes that I pretty much made straight from the manga is Beta Sabzi. The recipe is vegetable based (mainly pumpkin and tomatoes). The ingredients were easily found in my local Asian Grocery Store, so I decided to start out this series with this recipe.

Beta Sabzi, Chapter 92

I will continue by giving the caveat that this recipe did not serve 5-6. Perhaps it would serve that many if it was just a side dish, but if you are treating this as a main dish, which I did, you will get about 4 servings.

You can see the image capture above, which shows the page from the manga that this recipe is from, but as I modified it a little, as some of the quantities seemed to need a little adjustment, I will post the recipe and steps below as well.

Beta Sabzi

Ingredients

• 3 C. Kabocha Squash (if you can't find Kabocha use Acorn or Butternut)
• 3T. Vegetable Oil
• 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1 inch hunk of Ginger
• 2 Dried Red Chili Peppers
• Garam Masala to taste
• 2 L. Tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp chili powder (an Asian style, not the kind you would put in chili)
• 1 tsp Ground Coriander
• Salt to taste

Steps

 1. Peel the squash and cut into 3 cm sized pieces.

2.Heat the oil in a medium sized pot or Dutch Oven and toast the mustard seeds until they are fragrant.

3. Add the Chilis and finely minced Ginger to the pan.

4. Add Coriander, Chili Powder, Salt and tomatoes to the pot and stir to combine. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

5. Add the squash along with 2-3 C. of water (I recommend starting with a lower amount of liquid and adjusting depending on how thin you want the sauce to be. Bring to a boil and cook until the squash is tender.

Turn the heat off and add Garam Masala to taste. I added 1/2 to 1 tsp.

Serve either over rice or with the rice on the side.

I enjoyed this recipe. It was simple to make, and the flavors were light with some nice spice accents that gave the dish some personality and interest. I have made curry before, and this dish was not like any curry I have had. 

I would definitely recommend trying this recipe, at least once, and if you enjoy manga with humor, heart, and good food, definitely check out Addicted to Curry (keep in mind that this manga was written for teenage boys, so there is some gratuitous fan service sprinkled throughout. I have still enjoyed the series, and generally it is all in good humor). I continue to hope that it will eventually be officially translated. With the amount of anime and manga in its genre that have been released in the past few years I definitely could see a market for it.