Kitchen curiosities, part 2

I have a lot to report on our extensive traveling, but I wanted to mention one of my discoveries prior to coming to Japan..

...which I guessed, correctly, would mostly feature ingredients that would be easy to find in Japan. This has certainly proved true for the Japanese-style recipes, of which I've tried several. For example, here's my take on Tonkatsu, which in its original form contains pork; instead, per the recipe, I've dredged pressed tofu in a sticky batter, coated with bread crumbs, deep fried and added a tangy tomato sauce, all over rice.

More recently (read: 3 hours ago), I tried my hand at yakisoba, which is a fried vegetable and noodle dish, also featuring a sauce mainly comprised of tomato, soy sauce, and mirin (sweet cooking wine):


(Sorry for the blurry image. My camera bites.)

At first I was hesitant to start cooking again, because going to buy groceries here and using varyingly strange and different ingredients was such a jarring and alien experience. Cooking in a lot of ways needs to be in a comfort zone for me-- I have all the ingredients I need, I know where all the various utensils are, I know what setting on the stove dial produces how much heat, etc.-- otherwise, it feels wrong, and you can likely taste it in the results. I'm happy to report that as I'm getting more comfortable in our kitchen here, the subsequent food is a lot better.