Perhaps you got the impression from my last letter that I don't like
Japanese food. It's not true. I love it with a few exceptions (see last
letter). I've found many new foods that are great. Often I have no idea
what
I'm eating and I have to ask. Is this fish? No, its a vegetable. No its
rice etc.
The most popular snack food in Japan is called Oni Giri. Its English name
is rice ball. Its a triangle of sticky rice about 2 inches on each side
and
about 1 inch think. I the middle on 1 side is a generous dab of something,
either salmon, seaweed, pickled plum, or meat. The entire thing is
wrapped
in green seaweed and then in plastic wrapper. I am addicted to them.
There isn't a day that goes by when I don't eat at least one. Often I eat
2
and I could eat 10 I think on a bet. As far as fast food goes I think its
pretty healthy. They cost about 100 en (about 1 dollar)
Another popular thing here and another thing that I'm addicted to is
called anpan. "An" means beans and pan is bread. Its a bun filled with
sweetened adzuki beans. Does it sound disgusting to you? Japanese people
love "an" and they often put it in unexpected places like bread, cake,
popsicles and ice cream. Yes that's right, bean ice cream. Maybe you
wouldn't like it but I love it. Sometimes the beans come in another
wrapping called mochi. Mochi is probably the most fun food to eat in the
world. It has almost no taste but what it lacks in the taste department
it
makes up in the texture department. Think of eating playdoh. Mochi is a
rubbery mushy substance like that. Someone told me the other day that
every
year a number of old people die from mochi because they swallow it and it
gets stuck in their throats. I immediately replied that that was how I
wanted to die too (when my time was up)
This last weekend I was lucky enough to go to a neighborhood festival of
one of my co-workers where they made mochi the old-fashioned way. I was
in
mochi heaven. They filled a new large plastic garbage can with special
sticky mochi rice. Then they steamed it over an open fire in large bamboo
containers. Then they put the steaming rice into a large stone bowl and
pummeled it with a large wooden mallet until it took on this gooey
texture.
It took about 10 minutes of whacking to get it to this point. Then it was
divided up into little balls. You could then flatten out the steaming wads
and stuff it with something and then press it back into a ball. Fun. Some
of the optional things that you could put in it were, grated daikon ( a
large radish), an ( the sweet beans) , a bean powdered sugar, kim chi (a
garlicy Korean food), and yup you guessed it, nato. I opted for the beans
and I probably ate 6 or 7 of them. It was all washed down with hot tea
and
or sake which really warmed us all up.
Other great foods are all the pickled things that there are here. They
pickle radishes, cucumbers, carrots, almost anything you can think of.
These are served with almost every meal. They are great. A very popular
one is called umi boshi. Its a pickeled plum. They are bitter but
delicious. You can get them either dried or regular.
There are probably 10 or 15 kinds of tofu here. Some are sweet, some hard
textured, some silky smooth. There are many words in Japanese to describe
the different kinds of tofu. Actually Kyoto is famous for its tofu. Tofu
manufacturing needs lots of water and Kyoto has many many wells and
natural
springs. So there are tofu shops in most neighborhoods where they make
tofu fresh every morning. If you can get early at 5 am you can watch how
they do it.
In the stores there are also many different kinds of mushrooms. I see at
4
or 5 that are always there. Sometimes there are special ones that are
very
expensive , say $40 for 1 large mushrooom the size of a portabella. They
are
great in soups.
Noodles are big here. there are 2 main kinds, the udon and sorba. The
sorba are buckwheat and the udon are regular white wheat mushrooms. I
love
noodles and eat them often. But really Japanese noodles are about the
same
as other noodles as far as I can see. The difference is that people really
slurp their noodles. Sometimes it seems so funny. Once we were eating at
work and for a short period of time it seemed like people were slurping to
the music that was playing in the backround. I started to laugh but no
one
else noticed and they wondered a bit about me at that time I think.
Sometimes I like to test the limits. The other day we were eating ramen
at
work for lunch. I decided to see how loud I could slurp before someone
would say something. I slurped louder and louder until I thought they
must
know I`m making a joke, but nobody said anything no matter how loud I
slurped . They didn`t even look up. I guess when it comes to slurping,
anything goes.
Green tea must be the subject of another letter, but let me just say that
it is very different than any other kind of tea I ever had. It has a very
bitter taste that you either love or hate. I love it. I first got
introduced to it in a round about way , through green tea ice cream. What
do you think about tea ice cream? Yes they have some flavors that we
don't
have. I was addicted to green tea ice cream for a hot summer months. Now
that its cold, I've given it up for hot milk tea which you can get in any
vending machine.
A great food that they have here that we in the US know almost nothing
about is dried persimmons. Persimmons are a rather new fruit in the US.
I
think people started eating them about 10 years ago. In Japan they have
been popular forever. It is almost a symbol of Japan. Persimmon season
started in about October. There are persimmon trees everywhere and the
bright orange fruits decorate the trees long into November and December.
If
you leave them on the tree they will dry out naturally. They shrivel up
and
get a white sugary coating. I love dried persimmons. They are like a big
fat medoule date but with a lot more interesting taste. Its like the
difference between grape juice and wine. They are a little expensive but
they are well worth it.
Two of the most famous foods, sushi and tempora I decided not to eat much
of. Tempura is delicious of course but its greasy and not very healthy.
Its
like Japanese McDonalds in my opinion. However it is very popular here.
Of
course I taste it sometimes but as a rule I stay away from it. Sushi I
also
have stayed away from. I know. You may say that I`m missing the greatest
thing in the world, but for me its all hype. Its the wrapping that is
delicious I think, not the fish. I eat the wrapping without the fish. You
can but it in all the stores with or without fish and its delicious. I
don`t understand sushi. Why should I pay exorbitant amounts for fish that
is uncooked? I figure if its uncooked it should be cheaper not more
expensive. I have tried it a few times and I wasn`t impressed. I will
try
it a few more times though , I promise just for the experience.
I love going to the grocery store. Walking up and down the aisles , most
of
the things I see , I have no idea what they are. I try to buy one new
thing
each time I go. Then I can go and ask my Japanese co- workers what it is.
Today I bought something that I thought was tofu. I turned out to be the
stuff that is left over when they make sake. I tasted it and it packed a
punch. Its good for soup they tell me. Sometimes this backfires and I end
up buying something that I can't eat. This happened the other day when I
bought some fishit was so salty that it was almost inedible. I`ve
probably just scratched the surface in learning about Japanese cuisine. In
any event, eating is an adventure here, and I will continue to explore.
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