Nisei Week/Tofu Festival

On Saturday, D and I trekked out to Little Tokyo to check out Nisei Week and the Tofu Festival. I thought I could park at my work, but my garage wasn't open, so we had to find public parking, which is never a fun thing in L.A. Our first stop was Marukai, where D picked up some CA rolls and I had a mini chicken karage bento. Then we wandered around a bit, stopping at the Kinokuniya bookstore and Weller Court.

I told D we had to try the frozen yogurt at the newly opened Fiore.

We ordered a small green tea frozen yogurt with raspberries. Normally, I would feel bad paying over $4 for frozen yogurt, but I've heard so many people rave about Pinkberry, that I had see what all of the fuss was about. Who knew that Koreans had a thing for frozen yogurt?? It was definitely tangy...more like actual yogurt rather than soft serve, which most frozen yogurts seem to taste like these days. D wasn't too impressed--probably tasted too healthy for him.

There really weren't too many Nisei Week activities going on that day. I think most of the festivities are next week. We briefly looked at exhibits of Japanese dolls, calligraphy, swords and ceramics. I liked the ikebana arrangements. Here is an example:


This was our third tofu festival, and I think that it is getting better. Look for the free admission coupons that come in the grocery coupons on the Sunday before the festival--$8 value! There seemed to be more free samples, and more tastings in the $2-3 range, rather than the $4-$5 range. We had a Thai chicken skewer, green tea boba, mini tofu turkey meatball sandwich and D's favorite, chile garlic tofu (from the Lee Kum Kee booth). I think I will try to make it at home:


We also watched a cooking demonstration by Ann Gentry of Real Food Daily. She made grilled tofu sandwiches and caesar salad with tofu dressing. She was touting the wonders of "vegannaise".


There was also a performance by the UCLA taiko team.


Finally, D bought me an early birthday present :) This tote by Spicy Brown!

So cute!