Calligraphy and Cooking, A Cultural Perspective (1/21/13)

Hey oh y’all,

While Sumi points out more of my embarrassing moments here in Japan, I thought I’d take the moment to describe some more interesting cultural points.

First are a few more points about Zen Buddhism.

At the famous rock garden in Myoshinji, we learned that there are 15 rocks split into two gardens, one with dark sand, one with light sand. 15 is considered a perfect number in Japanese Buddhism (related to shichi-go-san, the 7-5-3 festival). But, as the gardens are split, there is no way to see all the rocks at once. Thus, man is not capable of seeing perfection. And although the garden is split between dark and light, there is no clear good and evil, and both parts are necessary. There is good and evil in all of us.

Then – cooking.

Buri is the name of the largest yellowfin. When it reaches a certain size, the name changes. So buri is a common fish that symbolizes growing up/graduating/rising level/etc.

It’s a lot like tai in that regard (though buri tastes better in my opinion).

Also – I don’t know if Sumi touched upon the tofu crème brulee – but it tastes like vanilla with a bread pudding texture. Very nice in my book!

And today I found a Japanese dish that I wholly do not like, and it’s not the infamous natto (which I have yet to try surprisingly). It’s called kasujiru – miso soup mixed with sake lees. It tastes bitter and has a rather gross visual aspect too – kind of milky white mush. Ugh.

Then the jury is also out on pure ryokucha – green tea. Green tea ice cream is amazing, as are any type of green tea sweets. But green tea by itself is kinda dry and bitter. Not my favorite. The cookies that it’s served with are good though!

-DC