Food picture update. Haven't done this in awhile. Got my inspiration to cook again. Got all the recipes from here

Mixed grain rice served with iri dofu, pickled ginger and long beans. Need to remind myself not to buy anything ginger again...but the pickled ginger looked appetizing. The iri dofu was quite fragrant, because of the sesame seed oil and green onions, and apparently is a good substitute for scrambled eggs (it's actually firm tofu). It looks, feels and tastes like egg.
Daifuku. It's the same as mochi, except it's not in soup. I think I made the dough too wet, because the texture was weird, not elastic enough.I'm not sure why the outside cracked, maybe it's because of the corn starch dusting and refrigerating it overnight that drew out the moisture. And also I should learn to be more generous with sugar, if I'm making sweets. I think it's become a habit to try to use as little salt and sugar as possible, and make up by using more herbs or more ingredients. Got some success with the red bean filling as compared to the last time I made mochi though. This time, I boiled the beans longer and mashed them through a sieve, so the texture was creamier. I reused the skin to make red bean soup. I think it'll taste better with sago and pandan leaves.
Zaru soba. It's cold noodles served with just a dipping sauce and garnish. It's oddly comforting food. I like it best with seaweed, because the taste is milder, but I also had green onions, radish, 7 spices powder (nanami togarashi) and toasted sesame seeds as garnish. At the side, you can see my yet-again failed attempt at salad, this time with a miso dressing. How hard could it be, right? But I didn't enjoy the taste and smell of raw vegetables, I washed it and reused the vegetables in fried rice. Not to mention I used too much mustard in the dressing. I also bought a bottle of kimchi, to go with these more empty dishes. When I first tried kimchi, I didn't really like it because it was sour and really spicy, but I think I'm growing to like it. Plus, it's supposed to be good for you, like yogurt is.
Rice balls. This time, I put pickled plum in them, then sprinkled furikake on them and wrapped up with seaweed. Next, I want to try grilling them and sprinkling with toasted sesame seeds. It's kind of an empty dish as well, since the main star is the rice, and not the filling, so my salad and kimchi make guest appearances as well.Btw...I I received my animal anatomy book! You can see it slightly in the background.

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Currently making a small batch of kimchi myself. It's pretty easy to make, here's a recipe. I substituted a lot of ingredients though, since I'm not too sure if I'll succeed, I haven't tried pickling anything before, I hope I don't make myself sick. But if I think it's got potential, but needs to taste more authentic, I'll go and buy the proper ingredients. I got a little crazy and started making the kimchi at midnight yesterday, then fell asleep and woke up realizing I left the salted vegetables at room temperature more than 2 times longer than I should. Also, not sure if there's a strict rule about how full you should fill the container, one source says fill it without leaving any air pocket, another said don't fill it to the top, since the kimchi will expand as it ferments. It was pretty fun opening the bottle that I bought, since it spewed open and the vegetables literally expanded so much I had to put the extra in another bottle. It reminds me of those ballistic bath bombs you can buy from Lush that fizzles dramatically when you throw it in the tub.