FUKUOKA, Japan – ”Tadaima!” (I’m home!) Yuriko and Satoshi
\nKawasaki cry as they remove their shoes and tumble into their
\nhouse after a hard day at kindergarten. ”Okaerinasai!” (Welcome home!)
\nreplies 40-year old Misako Kawasaki. She empties their school bags and
\nbrings their Ultraman and Hello Kitty lunch boxes into the kitchen.<\/p>\n
Early that morning, Misako Kawasaki spent almost an hour
\npreparing their lunches. Having spent more than five years living in
\nBoston, she knows how crazy this must sound to Americans. ”I
\ncould never give them a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a piece of
\nfruit, carrot sticks, cookie, and a juice pack in a paper bag,” she
\nsays. ”The teacher and other mothers would consider me lazy.”<\/p>\n
Instead, four times a week (”every day would be too much”) she
\ncrafts exquisite, colorful lunches arranged artfully in cute little
\nlunchboxes. She turns tomatoes into tulips, hard-cooked eggs into
\nchicks, and rice into soccer balls, complete with roasted seaweed
\ncut into little hexagons.<\/p>\n
A colorful, enticing meal is important in Japanese families. The
\nJapanese learn early on to ”eat with their eyes,” Kawasaki says. A
\nelaborately crafted lunchbox or a multi-course dinner may not be a
\nsure sign of a mother’s or wife’s love, but it is seen as an indication
\nof her efforts, to be recognized by others as well as her family.<\/p>\n
She’s not alone: There are endless books and magazines exhorting
\nher and other Japanese moms to make these lunchtime treats for
\ntheir children. And close to half a supermarket aisle can be devoted
\nto supplies for the project. Choices, of course, get increasingly
\nsophisticated as the diner ages – and that includes husbands as well
\nas adult children living at home.<\/p>\n
To that end, this mom spears glazed meatballs with ”Hello Kitty”
\npicks for the lunchbox, and cuts strawberries into the shape of a
\nfan. Her idea of a peanut butter sandwich would be to carve it into
\nthe shape of a teddy bear.<\/p>\n
At times these lunchtime art projects spill over into competition
\namong mothers and kids. And there is always some mild complaining.
\n”I am so tired of this I can’t think about it anymore,” says Eiko
\nTakahata. Her third child, Yoshi, is a middle school student who
\nprefers his mother’s cooking even though lunch is provided at
\nschool. Although Takahata no longer makes cute lunches, she still
\napplies many of the same aesthetics.<\/p>\n
She opens the freezer and pulls out a package of frozen
\nJapanese-style vegetables – six individual portions in little foil cups.
\nWith homemade rice, a pork cutlet, and pickles, she has nothing to
\nbe ashamed of. By the time Yoshi eats lunch, the vegetables have
\nthawed, and who would know they weren’t mom-made? In fact,
\nthat’s what the package says.<\/p>\n
Prepared foods are everyone’s secret: Tiger shrimp ($6 for four
\nservings), seasoned mini-hamburgers on buns ($5 for four),
\nseaweed salad ($2.30), and cheese croquettes ($4 for six) are not
\ncheap, but not prohibitive for middle-class families, especially
\nconsidering that women are working now, and after-school activities
\nare time-consuming.<\/p>\n
Families may have only one meal a week together. There are
\n”kaginoko” (latch-key kids), and some fathers so caught up with
\nworking late and dining with colleagues that they’re referred to as
\n”Sunday friends.”<\/p>\n
In Japan, the best extensive displays of packaged foods are in the
\nlower two levels of the department store. These food halls are
\nbustling with shoppers and concessionaires hustling for the
\nconsumer’s attention.<\/p>\n
”Come on, ma’am,” says a gravelly-voiced vendor with a cloth band
\ntied over his brow. ”You couldn’t make it any better! Don’t you need
\na break?” The housewife joshes with him: ”Sure I can, but today I’m
\ndoing you a favor!” She tucks eight shrimp dumplings in her cloth
\nshopping bag.<\/p>\n
Like many moms, this consumer probably goes food shopping on
\nher bike. She also takes food home to refrigerators with less than
\nhalf the capacity of a typical American refrigerator and limited
\ncabinet space. But the appliances will be the latest models.<\/p>\n
And if lunch sounds elaborate, you should see what the Kawasaki
\ntwins had for dinner on a recent weeknight: simmered vegetables
\nsteeped in a traditional sauce; grilled mackerel; deep-fried ginger
\nchicken; spinach with a sesame-seed dressing; vinegared cucumber
\nand crab salad; a light broth with slivers of wild mushroom; crunchy
\npickles; steamed white rice. Carrots were cut into cherry blossoms
\nand shreds of scallions were tied into knots. A simple plate of
\nsteamed green beans with wisps of shredded ginger and a
\nsprinkling of black and white sesame seeds finished the meal.<\/p>\n
And there were no other moms around to see what she had made.<\/p>\n
KABOCHA NO NIMONO
\n(Japanese-style squash)<\/p>\n
In this simple dish, acorn squash is simmered in dashi, a fish stock
\nmade from dried bonito, available in Asian markets. Serves 4.<\/p>\n
1 small acorn squash
\n1 cup dashi or water
\n2 to 3 tablespoons sugar
\n1 tablespoon sake
\n2 tablespoons soy sauce
\nPinch of salt<\/p>\n
1. Halve the squash, remove the seeds, and cut the flesh into 2-inch
\npieces. Peel off some strips of skin so the squash looks striped.
\n2. In a large saucepan, combine the dashi or water, 2 tablespoons
\nof the sugar, and the sake. Add the squash; bring the mixture to a
\nboil.
\n3. Lower the heat and simmer the squash for 10 minutes, or until it
\nis tender and the liquid is almost entirely absorbed.
\n4. Add the soy sauce and salt and taste for seasoning. Add the
\nremaining 1 tablespoon sugar, if you like. Let the squash cool.
\nServe at room temperature.<\/p>\n
Adapted from ”Japanese Family-Style Recipes”
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FUKUOKA, Japan – ”Tadaima!” (I’m home!) Yuriko and Satoshi Kawasaki cry as they remove their shoes and tumble into their house after a hard day at kindergarten. ”Okaerinasai!” (Welcome home!) replies 40-year old Misako Kawasaki. She empties their school bags and brings their Ultraman and Hello Kitty lunch boxes into the kitchen. Early that morning, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,132,36,110,97,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fooding-around","category-japan","category-japanese","category-rice","category-rice-noodles-pasta","category-feature-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cookingatdebras.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cookingatdebras.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cookingatdebras.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cookingatdebras.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cookingatdebras.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cookingatdebras.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1157,"href":"https:\/\/www.cookingatdebras.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions\/1157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cookingatdebras.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cookingatdebras.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cookingatdebras.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}