Okaasan's Cooking

So, how do you explain table top gaming to a 68 year old Japanese woman in Japanese? I’ve done so, but I’m not so sure about the answer….

Today I also had the opportunity to eat Kitsune Udon. Now, as some of you might know, kitsune means “fox” in Japanese—no, I did not eat fox. What I ate instead was udon (white noodles) topped with aburage—fried tofu skin. Now, aburage is said to be a favorite of foxes, which is why aburage stuffed with rice is called Inarizushi (Inari being the god of foxes and rice, while “zushi” being a derivative of “sushi” (trust me, it works in Japanese…)) and soup with aburage in it is called “fox noodles” (kitsune udon).

 Okaasan also made the udon by hand (or by foot, as it actually appears to be mixed in a plastic bag while you stomp on it. But hey, freshly made pasta is the best kind of pasta) and I could feel how tender the noodles were. They were chewy and I reveled in them, slurping them up with gusto (here slurping is considered good manners! Ha, Mom! I’ve finally found a place where I can “hoover” and not get in trouble!) I usually reserve for Mrs. P’s pasta (the Italian cooking goddess who has been a friend of the family for many years), Mom’s meatloaf (on a scale from 1 to yummy, rate a rush to the table for seconds), and Dad’s pizza and his polenta casserole (which have been blessed by the gods of culinary delights). Okaasan’s udon noodles were delicious, and I can’t wait to eat them again. This is considered a “winter” dish, so I’m expecting them to be hanging around. Whoo hoo!

However, aburage appears to be the same taste and consistency of maple-syurp drenched pancakes. It was a surprise to find something so teeth-hurtingly sweet in the savory soup. I was a little (and by that, I mean very) surprised. It’s very unlikely that it actually used any maple syrup (which costs an arm and a leg and very possibly part of your soul as well for a very small bottle); I think she used sweet cooking wine and soy sauce, but whatever it was, it was sweet.

So, cooking with Okaasan. Well, I had a far out dream that maybe, just maybe, I could be able to impress Okaasan with my cooking. After tonight, this is a dream no more. I absolutely failed at helping Okaasan make okonomiyaki. My cutting was uneven and not as small as it was supposed to be, I couldn’t hold the chopsticks properly for mixing (though that was a surprise that I hadn’t expected—here they use chopsticks, not spoons, for stirring heavy materials. My hands hurt for the rest of the night!), and some green onion jumped out of the bowl no matter how slowly I stirred. It was kinda humiliating; here I was

Tentacles!

thinking that I knew how to cook, and I could barely stir the bowl. Okaasan has much mastery over me, but I thought I could do a little right, maybe at apprentice level. But tonight I was at beginner—or negative beginner—level. However, the okonomiyaki were filling and tasty and I enjoyed chewing on the tentacles.

The completed okonomiyaki! Yummy~!

After that, I went on a night walk with Okaasan. It was the perfect weather. Twilight had stolen over the land, the crickets and other insects of the night were chirping, and it was neither hot nor cold. Apparently, a ton of people walk at night, because the streets were almost as bustling as they were in the day.

Following that, it was a shower, then blogging, then bed. Good night!