Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Ephemeral Tastes of Japan

There are so many delicious foods in this world, and specifically, in Japan.  I think I may have an unhealthy addiction to kinako powder.  Last month it was azuki paste, this month kinako.  As the weather heats up, I find myself craving the taste of sour plum, something I used to detest, but that supposedly has body cooling properties.  I've only come so far as to want it in furikake (rice seasoning) but even this is a new awakening for me.  Seaweed–cooked, dry, flaked, anyway, anyhow–has become a staple.

As I finished my kinako yogurt this morning, I thought about the sadness that comes with eating something really delicious.  A friend of mine lamented the inevitable conclusion of kale chips from Trader Joe's, an even more dire predicament than mine given the difficulty in procuring more.  And another friend of mine and I had a moment of reflection over the deliciousness of the Korean seaweed we had just consumed at lunch.  The more you chew, the less there is.  The pleasure cannot exist without the act of destroying it.  That's just the way it is.  I'll have to work very hard to eat all the wonderful things in Japan, but someday it will have to come to an end.  And then I'll live near a well-stocked Japanese store in America.

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