Lilia Yamakawa
Comfort foods are foods that make you relaxed, and you sometimes have this
craving for it. It isn’t necessarily a fancy special dish that would take a
long time and a lot of effort to make.
It often tends to be a daily dish like miso soup or even rice.
For me, as I mentioned above, it is tatakigobo and macaroni and cheese, but
my Japanese side also yearns for yakisaba
(grilled mackerel), kimpira gobo (braised burdock root), nikujaga (meat and
potato tumble), and akadashi (red miso soup). The American side craves pecan pie, catfish, gumbo and so on. It
seems like all my comfort foods reflect my culture or it is something that I
have been eating since I was small. Tatakigobo is a dish that Japanese mainly
eat at new years, but we eat it year around at my house. And everybody makes it
totally different. I also likeおひたし. That is spinach made with sesame seeds. I always had it in
my bento and my mom called it spinach mountains. But I like it with peanut
butter better than sesame seeds. About
food I am 雑種 a mutt!
The macaroni cheese is very American. My
mother’s hometown is the southern part of the USA, Louisiana. When I visit
there, I always eat many different dishes. Pecan pie is a southern dish made from a kind
of nuts. I love it! My grandpa used pecans he picked up in the yard and shelled
for us. Fried catfish and hush puppies are also southern and maybe not so
healthy but so tasty! Other dishes like gumbo
reflect the Cajun cuisine of Louisiana where my family lives. (Those are
dishes that came from the people who migrated to Louisiana from French Canada.)So
when I eat these dishes I feel like I’m at home with my family, and can relax.
Back to the subject of my blog: Japanese
food. I made an informal survey about “what is your comfort food?” in Japanese
on twitter. And the answers were quite interesting. One guy said fish, and his home is right next to the
sea and his parents are fisherman. Others said onigiri (rice balls), oden,
kimpira gobo, heshiko and so on. (You don’t even want to know about heshiko,
mackerel pickled in rice bran – it is gross.) They all seem to be something
that comes out in a daily menu at home. The most interesting answer was, “my
mom’s miso soup, anything that's ofukuronoaji”. Actually, 5 out of 10 said “my
mothers ____” Ofukuronoaji means moms
cooking. It is a Japanese word that describes something that your mother made
for you since you were a little kid, and the taste you are used to. Therefor it
seems that comfort food for Japanese is ofukuronoaji.
I also made a very informal survey
among non-Japanese friends. A few said chocolate. And others said oranges,
chips, kimuchi, pizza, etc.…. but out of 10, no one said “my mothers _____”.
Isn’t that strange? I think they were just surprised by the question and didn’t
really think too much. I’m sure everybody’s got their ofukuronoaji that they
love. (I wonder if Korean moms make kimuchi at home?)
On Wikipedia in
English, it says something interesting about Americans: “males preferred warm,
hearty, meal-related comfort foods (such as steak, casseroles, and soup), while
females instead preferred comfort foods that were more snack related (such as
chocolate and ice cream).” It also says “Further studies suggest that consumption of comfort food is triggered in men by positive emotions, and by negative ones in women. The stress effect is particularly pronounced among college-aged women, with only 33% reporting healthy eating choices during times of emotional stress.” So men want comfort foods when they are happy and women want comfort foods when they are unhappy? And us college age women pig out on junk food in this season of tests and papers?
I wonder what comfort foods my GS and IR friends from all over the world are craving during this time of stress? Maybe we should all try some tataki gobo. It is eaten at new years because the deep root stands for stability and joy aplenty.
References
Comfort food (n.d). In Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_food
Shizuo.T, (1980). Japanese Cooking - A Simple Art, Kodansha International, Tokyo and New York,
Oh yes, I wanted to eat 'My Grandmother's Kimchi' so much during this semester. In Korea, we have a refrigerator made for Kimchi-it is designed to keep the taste of Kimchi at the most appropriate temperature with fantastic new technologies. Most of all, it is used to keep Kimchi only, so that the normal refrigerator doesn't get a strong acid smell from Kimchi.
ReplyDeleteI love Kimchi, and I love the smell, but last year I found out that the smell somehow changes in the different environment. The taste also changed. The Kimchi I got from Korea did not taste like it should. Moreover, almost everything in my fridge absorbed the smell of the Kimchi. I just couldn't welcome it.
Anyways, I am in Korea now and I am happy that I had a lot of ofukuronoaji. Yum yum.