'Courting' death for good fortune

By F.J. Khergamvala

TOKYO, JAN. 2.Over the past 400 years, Japanese cuisine has been designed to stimulate the five senses as communicated by the essence of a particular season. What has remained a constant throughout the centuries in Chinese and Japanese food is the courting of good fortune, especially during auspicious beginnings such as the New Year.

Unfortunately, one of the most depressing headlines in the first few days of each year is a listing of people, especially the elderly who choke to death trying to stay with the custom of seeking good fortune through mythological beliefs in the value of food taken on a particular occasion. The main culprit is the Japanese rice cake, ``mochi.'' Already, on Friday two people killed themselves when the sticky balls of rice lodged themselves in the throat. Some more will run the gauntlet, unsuccessfully, before the week is out.

``Mochi,'' is prepared from a highly glutinous variety. It is first steamed, kneaded by a machine or, more popularly, pounded into cakes the old fashioned pestle and mortar way - a big mallet that requires it to be wielded like an axe, pounds the rice in a mortar. Unlike the flat rice cake, the New Year's favourite is the round double-decker decoration, the `kagami- mochi.' Consistency is a virtue of good 'mochi.' Unfortunately, so is its sticky character, which is what makes it lethal for some elders who try to eat the substance while alone, against government advice.

But for the fatalities arising from the consumption of this delicacy, the Japanese New Year, is an effort at discipline, and the blending of the spiritual with the scientific, as over a million people come out at each major shrine or temple to seek good fortune and prosperity as the gong strikes the midnight hour. The food table is a work of art, the presentation of it meant as much to please the palate as the eyes. Pine and bamboo, which remain green through the winter, are the principal ingredients, served with plum which is the first tree to flower in spring. Cranes and turtles symbolise longevity. Everything on the table has a meaning, as part of the whole.

When Indira Gandhi had passed through Japan in the early 1980s, at an evening meal hosted by then Prime Minister, Mr Zenko Suzuki, the soup was served in a dark bowl painted inside with pictures of the bamboo tree. It was a clear soup, with a few greens thrown in, allowing the eye to take in the bamboo decor through the liquid. There was one solitary pigeon's egg floating in each bowl. Mr. Suzuki asked the guest leader what she might make of the presentation. Promptly came the refined reply, ``To my eyes, it is a full moon (the egg) shining over a dark forest on a clear night.'' Japanese officials sat up, aghast at the completely accurate and un-coached reply.

Most food harmonises colour and texture with the season. Likewise, New Year's food is served with a meaning. Many homes, restaurants serve the food on a paddle that is used by girls in a New Year's game resembling badminton. A leaf cluster is one of the presentations, to denote a shuttle. The traditional New Year's soup, zoni, features the round mochi rice-cake.

Western culture has laid powerful claim and made great inroads, but sea food, vegetables and rice form the main traditional ingredients in a culture surrounded by the seas and the influence of Buddhism which prohibited the killing of animals.

The one dish that transcends all ages, regions, seasons and hours of the day is the ever popular soba, or just plain noodles. At any temple or shrine, after midnight when the public crowds round the eating stalls, the most popular is the long-strand (for longevity) buckwheat noodle, or toshikoshi soba. It has lived through 400 years as the food that says goodbye to the past and welcomes in the New Year. Except for the unfortunate few who fall victim to the mochi.

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Section  : International
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