Mabuta # 21
Kanoma's notes in parenthesis ( )
Translator's notes in brackets [ ]
21st installment
Foods that go together
Recently, I have changed into a tofer. When I say tofer, I'm not talking about the soymilk purin that's a Chinese dessert. I eat tofu just about every day, and I've slightly changed the way I've been eating [ tofu with other foods ], so I've decided that the name 'tofer' suits that part of me. Adding 'er' to a word is sort of like ' ~ no hito ', in that it describes a person's nature.
A person who lives in New York becomes a New Yorker, a person who enjoys diving becomes a diver, a MUCC fan becomes a MUCCer, and someone who likes mayonnaise becomes a mayoraer. If you follow this line of thinking, a person who likes tofu becomes a tofer. But there's also a guitarist, economist, and following that, you could say a tofist. I think that the word tofist sounds better, but as its just easier to say tofer, that's what I call it.
I've become a tofer just relatively recently. At times, feeling sick due to a cold or things like heat exhaustion, your appetite drops and the only thing you can eat easily is noodles until you can weather through your sickness. However, one day I couldn't even muster up the appetite for noodles, and the only thing I could eat was tofu. After eating only tofu during that time, I had completely converted after that week. At first of course, I was only eating tofu with soy sauce, and with it cold, but then I began to experiment with different variations. Although things like sesame seed dressing, ponzu [ sauce made of soy sauce and citrus juice ] in small amounts on tofu are pretty normal.
But recently I realized that the taste was just too simple, and soon after that realization, I gradually started to change how I eat things. Up till then tofu had just been a side dish, sort of along the same ranks as white rice, which pretty much lacks in taste. It's even been said that tofu is a good side dish to hamburgs. But it's not only good as a side dish. And taking the name tofer now, I'm still in the process of changing how I eat things.
One habit [that I've been changing] is what I usually eat rice with, such as curry rice, hayashi rice, or chukadon. If you add a little bit of roux to rice, and top it with some soft cooled tofu, when you eat the rice, roux, and tofu at the same time the result is surprisingly delicious. It doesn't add a strong taste, but a mild one. I really want readers to try it. For one plate of curry, about 150 grams (or half a normal dish) should be about right. If it's delicious, then be sure to recommend it to your friends. If such a habit spread, perhaps 'tofer' would come into fashion all across the country.
In any case, isn't mayoraer a strange word? If 'er' must be added to the word mayonnaise, shouldn't it be mayonnaiser, or even mayoner? Whoever thought to add raer to mayonnaise was an idiot. Well, even with that, I guess I'm a little bit of a mayonnaiser myself (I dare you to say mayonnaiser instead). I use mayonnaise on hamburgs, croquettes and other stuff. Of course I also use mayonnaise on rice, but what's the point of even mentioning that?
Some years ago I saw a TV show on which people were searching for a blend of seven spices. A person on the show mentioned parfaits, though they mentioned them for diet purposes, but why would you eat a parfait while you're dieting? But I thought that there was no way that sweet things and spicy things could go together. Eating things like that was heresy!!
In reality all over the world there are blends of foods put together that you would never imagine going together, and many of these foods sell popularly. I'll talk about a few of these foods that I've tried.
Chocolate Japanese persimmon seeds: These are fairly popular and I think quite a few people know about them. It's strange to think of those bitter seeds dipped into a chocolate coating. I like chocolate, I like persimmons, and I like the seeds, so when I saw this product I thought it looked fairly interesting, but my impressions upon eating it were: ".... somehow, this has a miso-ish taste to it." It tastes like mixing a bit of soy sauce into chocolate, sweet and faintly salty. In any case, it really tasted miso-ish.
Risk Factor: 1 out of 5 stars
White chocolate dried squid: Dried squid is a standard snack, but this product is dried squid with a white chocolate coating. To me, it seems like these guys saw the persimmon seeds dipped in chocolate, and thought they'd take advantage of that, making their own product also dipped in chocolate. I don't think it's a bad idea to have snacks dipped in chocolate but ... But less than this and less than the taste, I feel that I have to write about the smell. The moment you put it in your mouth, the sweetness of chocolate and the unique fishy smell of dried squid just spreads. Perhaps if it didn't have that fishy smell this product would be on the same level as the persimmon seeds, but that smell ....
Risk Factor: 2 out of 5 stars
McCol: This is a carbonated drink made out of barley. I first saw this product when I was in high school. My friend, who lived in Ibaraki prefecture, had a magazine at his house in which this product was featured as the worst tasting carbonated drink. That's when I decided, without hesitation, that I needed to try it. I showed the magazine article to my friend and we went to search for a place that sold McCol. I don't know how long it took, but eventually we found an old vending machine that looked as though it hadn't been used in years, and there was McCol. And the taste .... it tasted like a barley tea flavored coke. I have no other words to describe it. It really tasted like that. It really smelled of barley.
Risk Factor: 4 out of 5 stars
Wasabi soft serve: When I was in junior high I went with my family to a wasabi factory. Why did my mother decide to take two middle school aged kids to a wasabi factory I wonder? Of course, the only things you could do were look at wasabi, buy wasabi, and eat wasabi products. Back in those days I hated wasabi, and so the only point of interest I had was this: they had wasabi soft serve, and stupidly like the kid I was, I thought it looked absolutely delicious. Any adult could imagine what it would really taste like. That's right, it tasted simply like plain soft serve with wasabi mixed into it. After one bite I wanted to throw up. It was such a traumatic experience that to this day I can still remember it so clearly. That smell, that taste .....
Risk Factor: 5 out of 5 stars
Apart from the things I've written about, the world is overflowing with odd foods. Sanma ice cream [ fish ice cream ], dumplings youkan [ sweet bean jelly flavored like dumplings ], ramen youkan [ sweet bean jelly flavored like ramen ], ghengis khan caramel [ caramel flavored like the Japanese lamb dish of ghengis khan ], and even more. You can find information about local specialty foods by checking out bookstores. If you've an interest in this type of thing, it'd be great to get out there and look yourself.
