About 2 years ago, local comedian Frank DeLima delivered
a commencement address that started like this:
“Eat rice.
If you only pay attention to one thing I say, pay
attention to this: Rice is the breakfast of champions … the lunch of champions …
the dinner of champions
Whole empires, entire dynasties have been built and
fortified on its humble food.
One grain, by itself, is nothing. Just an embarrassing
sticky white t’ing stuck on your T-shirt after lunch. But many grains together
-- that’s greatness! It is the foundation of a Spam musubi, the heart of a thousand plate lunches, the force behind the
global kingdom of L&L drive-ins.
Rice holds the world together. Be a part of the world. Be
a part of the future.
Eat rice.”
The Tatsumoto Oshogatsu
Growing up in the 50th, the Tatsumoto ohana didn’t adhere to a lot of Oshogatsu traditions other than Mom’s
annual New Year’s Eve party. I never really knew what toshi-koshi soba was – in
fact a lot of local Japanese families simply said you had to eat saimin before the New Year but didn’t
really know why. And my family never placed kadomatsu
at the front door nor did we savor osechi--ryori
over the first 3 days of the New Year. Ojiichan
did insist on sipping scalding sake just as the New Year started and we did
consume ozoni as the first meal of
the New Year along with canned kuromame
but one constant was always there, the solitary kagami mochi – usually the plastic variety – with the tangerine
placed on top.
It wasn’t until well after my undergraduate years that I
started searching for the significance to these Oshogatsu customs and foods and after discovering why we follow
these traditions, have continued to perpetuate some or selectively ignore
others. Like the kadomatsu at the
home’s entrance – something about plants that thrive under adversity with
strength and also flexibility are traits that we all love to embrace. And
bamboo, pine and cherry blossom also make a lovely trio when arranged properly.
Or having that first sip of o-toso to
prevent illness throughout the rest of the year – of course, it doesn’t hurt
that I also love sake. Then there’s shishamo and kazunoko which I avoid. Don’t want any “fruitfulness” throughout
the course of the year especially when approaching jiichan age. But the one constant has been the kagami mochi. Other than the symbolism of keeping family and
friends together along a reflection of life itself, if it weren’t for rice,
most of Hawaii’s cultural cuisine would not exist.
Early on, I purchased a wooden stand for my kagami mochi and initially would only
purchase fresh mochi made
specifically for display along with a fresh tangerine that still had 3 leaves
attached to the stem. Of course, fresh mochi
does have a limited shelf life before it starts hardening so if you didn’t purchase
it while it was still soft and didn’t place the smaller disk on the larger disk
or if you purchased it after it started hardening, your kagami mochi would be so wobbly, you wouldn’t be able to balance
the tangerine on top of it. And since the 50th does have its fair
share of humidity, most fresh mochi
can’t be consumed on the 11th day’s kagami-biraki or mochi breaking ceremony. You see, after
3 or 4 days, the mochi starts
developing a… “beard”. Usually a pronounced black “beard” of the fungal variety.
So never mind waiting 11 days, it’s usually tossed out within the first week.
So for the past several years, I’ve reverted back to the plastic variety of kagami mochi which is usually filled
with individually wrapped edible mochi
that I use in my ozoni.
Continue Eating
Rice after New Years
There’s no reason to stop eating rice after New Year’s
Day has come and gone and there’s no reason to continue eating just plain short
grain rice. After all, the seeds of Oryza
sativa or Oryza glaberrima
provide more than just a simple side dish to various proteins, they also
provide a lot of color to your dinner plate – yes, rice comes in more than the
color white or brown. There’s red, black, dark brown and even green rice
(soaked in bamboo extract) and the colored variety means you’re getting the
whole grain and its associated nutrients and fiber. Though I grew up just
consuming the basic short grain rice in the 50th, I now include the
whole spectrum of the rainbow in my rice products.
Or how about rice noodles? If you’ve sampled a plateful of spicy Pad Thai, then you’ve already tried rice
noodles. Or if you’ve had a bowlful of hearty Pho, then you’ve tried the noodle version of the venerable grain. Or
perhaps you’d rather sample a sheet of rice noodles. A “sheet” of rice noodles?
Well, if you’ve sampled either Vietnamese spring or summer rolls, then you’ve
already tried these “sheets” of rice noodles as they’re simply not cut into
strands like traditional noodles but left as a round sheet. The major benefit
to rice noodles is that unlike wheat based noodles, rice noodles simply have to
be submerged in hot water to “cook”. No boiling is necessary at all. Same goes
for the sheet variety. In fact whenever I see a package of these “sheets” of
rice paper, it takes me back to my first visit to a Vietnamese restaurant. Both
my mother and wife ordered spring rolls which were meant to be wrapped in
lettuce leaves. I ordered a dish that was meant to be wrapped in softened rice
paper. Because the spring rolls left traces of oil on their fingers, they both
cleansed their fingers in a bowl of hot water left on our table and even
commented on how thoughtful the staff was to leave a warm finger bowl for them…
Turns out that the warm water was meant to soften my rice paper. So my dish was
now flavored with Mom and the Mrs’ oily finger residue… Oh well…
Or simply go back to those Japanese roots with pounded
rice grains or mochi. Normally I
consume these either in ozoni or
stuffed with sweetened bean paste. But
earlier this year, we dined at a restaurant in Paia, Maui that produced Korean
fusion cuisine including a mochi that
was stuffed with kalua pig
(underground cooked pork that tastes like pulled pork) then pan seared and
served with a hoisin-kochojung sauce… I WILL be attempting to
recreate this dish in the New Year with leftover mochi from my ozoni…
And finally, rice doesn’t simply have to be eaten. It can
also be sipped and savored. As in sake.
Which always has a place in the Tatsumoto Oshogatsu
whether it was quaffing that shot glass of near boiling sake at midnight offered by Ojiichan
years ago or the O-toso herb infused
rendition in the present or just enjoying a fragrant daiginjo with sashimi on
the first day of the year, sake was
and will always be a part of the Gochiso Gourmet’s Oshogatsu.
So we can all continue to consume rice and rice products
in the New Year both in traditional and not so traditional dishes. And as Frank
DeLima ended his commencement address:
“Above all, eat rice.
If you have diabetes, make that brown rice”
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