For Music Group events, I always try to have at least one major dish and a couple of minor ones composed for vegetarians. For the next one I decided to compose a vegetarian version of the Japanese Oden stew. It's not hard to make, but I can't say that for composing the recipe, it took a lot of work over 3 days.

Way back in the mists of time, I used to have an August Brunch party every year, for up to 40 people (I had friends back in those days). For one of them I was making a very large pot of Oden. A couple of people I knew had gotten this idea of setting up a vegetarian catering business to serve at New Age events. They came over to see how it was done. I put them to work preparing vegetables for the Oden, and other such tasks. By time they left, they had decided that this catering thing was totally unsuitable for Intellectual New Age Environmentalists - it was work! Hard work!

Oden, Vegetarian

After this event is over, I'll do up a non-vegetarian version.

. . it's probably lightly seasoned, but it's still Nori (kim or gim in Korean). It's all a red algae (Porphyra yezoensis or P. tenera), known as "Laver" in Europe. It's chopped up and laid into paper and dried. It is then lightly toasted, which turns it green.