Japanese food
I've been a vegetarian for about 20 years. I think that this choice has
forced me to be more adventurous than most Americans when it comes to what
I
eat. I have a certain amount of pride in the fact that I can enjoy almost
any food of almost any culture. There are few foods I don't like. Even
the
foods I choose not to eat, like meat and mayonaise, I like. I just chose
not to eat them because they are not that healthy.Of course there are a
few
exceptions. For some reason I don't like beer. This quirk makes me
immediately suspicious in the minds of many people. They take it as a
personal offense. How can I not like something that is so special to
them.
Its like saying I don't believe in God or like music. I actually used to
work for a man who claimed he didn't like any kind of music. But I'm
wandering, forgive me. The point is that people get very protective about
things they like.
I was invited to visit a Japanese friend in Tokyo. Sayano said I could
stay
with her family for the weekend. I was excited because this would give me
a
chance to see Japanese cultlure up close. The first morning I came down
for
breakfast with high hopes. They were eating rice. I love rice. I eat it
all the time. Also they had a lot of pickled things like pickled radish,
turnips, carrots. It was great. It was different but I liked it. My
hosts
looked at me warrily as I told them how much I liked their food. I was
feeling really proud of myself. "I'm no typical American," I thought. "I
can eat their food." That's when the father, beaming said, "well since
you
like everything else I wonder if you would like to try some nato." They
all
smiled. This was a smile that I had difficultly interpreting. Were they
smiling because they were sharing something they truely loved with me or
were they smiling because they were sure that they would make me crack.
"Sure I'd love to try it." I naively said. "What IS nato?" "Its
fermented
beans," he said as he opened the plastic container and scooped a large
portion into my rice bowl. "Its very very healthy. That's maybe why
Japanese people live so long." I peered into my bowl. The small brown
beans
were swimming in a slimey white liquid. When he turned the spoon over
little rivulets of slime clung to the spoon. They wouldn't let go. The
rivulets were about 2 feet long. Finally he had to swing his spoon around
a
few times to cut of the slime ropes. "Try it," they urged. "We all love
it." That was a challenge if ever there was one. I took a healhty amount
of beans and mixed it with a little bit of rice and smiled back at them.
I
put it in my mouth and all I tasted was slime. It had a foul smell and
clung to my tongue as I chewed. I immediately had a flashback to the time
when I stayed over at Alec Chelloffs house when I was in the 5th grade.
His
mother served us French bread for breakfast. But his mom made it
differently than my mom. Her French toast had pieces of egg coming out of
it and it reminded me of "PUKE". I couldn't eat what was in my mouth. I
grabbed one of the cloth napkins and turned around like I was coughing,
but
really I threw up into that napkin. Then I held onto it and later threw
it
away in the garbage. I don't know if they noticed but about 1 month later
Alec threw up on my desk in school. Retaliation? That was the way I was
feeling at breakfast in Tokyo. But wait, I was much older now, I had
control of myself. I had studied meditation by golly. I wasn't going to
let these people get the best of me. I wasn't just representing myself ,
I
was also representing my country. With great effort I forced myself to
smile and said, "MMMM its very good." Maybe that didn't notice that my
voice was cracking as I said it. They looked at one another beaming. They
were very happy. They watched as I ate the whole thing. As I expected
they
offered me more and I thanked them and told them that I was full. There
was
just a half a cup of rice left in my bowl.
"Since you like nato so much, I'm sure you will like raw egg on your
rice."
And before I could think of how to stop him he cracked an egg and dumped
it
on my rice. My face smiled but my mind was cursing him. Again with the
slime. I ate that rice with slimely egg and I didn't lose it though I
told
myself that if I did throw up I was going to throw up on the father.
"Will you be back for lunch?" they asked as I was leaving for the day.
"No I don't think so. I think I'll be busy sightseeing." Luckily we went
to
a restaurant for dinner and I could order what I wanted.
There are a number of other things that Japanese people eat that make an
American gasp the first time he or she sees them. They eat these little
fish about the size of a fingernail clippings. They buy them in big bags.
If you look closely you can see that these thousands of little fish still
have eyes in them. I can eat a lot of things but please don't make me eat
eyes. There is a bigger variety that they fry and eat whole like that.
The
fish make a loud crunching sound as you bite down on the head bones and
eyes. They do wierd things with jello. They have a sweet potato jello
that
I like now especially in soup. It has a strange texture kind of like an
eraser. They actually have a kind of fish jello that they make. Actually
its not bad unless you think about it being fish jello. Then they have
fish
flakes. They get a fish and shave it down really fine until you have
these
flakes. They buy them in big bags and use them to make soup. Sometimes
they just sprinkle them onto foods like fried eggs. The flakes are so
thin
and light that they seem to dance in the heat waves of the hot food they
are
placed on.
And then there is sushi. They say that it is an acquired taste. Why
should
I go to the trouble of acquiring taste that is so damned expensive? And
why is food that is uncooked more expensive than food that is cooked? If
they cook it then they worked harder. Sushi should be cheaper. But no.
Maybe you heard that the puffer fish is considered to be a great delicacy
when served as sushi. However if not cooked properly it is deadly. NO
THANK YOU. The people at work told me about a Japanese delicacy called
suppon. Its snapping turtle soup. Before you eat the soup, you drink the
blood, raw and cold. It costs about $100 for a meal like that. So I guess
I'm not such an open minded eater as I thought. Ok Japan. You win.
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