Japanese with anime voice: episode55
Hello, I’m Sachi.
May 17, today is Ochazuke Day. Ochazuke is a traditional Japanese way of eating rice, where you pour tea over rice and eat it. If you are familiar with Japanese food culture, you surely know a product called ochazuke. They sprinkle it on rice, pour tea or hot water over it, and eat it. Nowadays, ochazuke is a commercialized product, but until it was created, it was just rice and tea. But if you look up the origin of ochazuke, you will find that this way of eating started in the Heian period (794-1192), much earlier than the Edo period (1603-1868). During this period, it was called “yuzuke,” which means cold rice with hot water poured over it, and was eaten by aristocrats. It was eaten by the aristocracy, and then became popularized and changed to ochazuke with the development of the tea ceremony. Then it was commercialized, and the name “ochazuke” was given to it, and it became the ochazuke we know today. May 17 is the anniversary of the death of Mr. Yoshio Nagatani, the founder of Nagatanien, who developed the ochazuke.
Nagatanien’s ochazuke is delicious. Moreover, it is said that the taste of Nagatanien’s ochazuke has hardly changed at all compared to the time when it was first introduced to the market. It was launched in 1951. This means that the taste has not changed for about 73 years! This unchanged taste is also a good thing, isn’t it? I wish good food would stay the same for a long time.
I am so used to this ochazuke that I feel that simply pouring tea over rice is not enough for me. However, even if you don’t have ochazuke, you can easily make ochazuke-like dishes with ingredients you have at home! I think ochazuke is hard to find in other countries. In such cases, you can make ochazuke by pouring chicken broth over rice and pouring in hot water. If possible, it would be nice to have some pickled plums there. But if you can’t get ochazuke, you probably can’t get umeboshi. If you ever live in Japan, please try the ochazuke with chicken stock and pickled plums. Well, if I were in Japan, I would buy more ochazuke than that. Talking about that, I also felt like eating ochazuke for the first time in a while. I recommend chazuke because it is easy to eat even when you don’t have much of an appetite. In summer, it is so hot that you may lose your appetite, but eating is still a way of life. It is important to eat something even in such a situation.
When I was still living alone, in the middle of summer, I didn’t turn on the air conditioning to save money. But that day, I strangely did not feel any heat. I thought that if I didn’t turn on the air conditioning, I could save money on my electric bill for a long time. And that day I had an appointment to meet my mom. But as the time to leave the house approached, accompanied by a headache and nausea, I had no appetite. I had no energy to move. I called my mom and told her that I was not allowed to go out. She told me that she didn’t mind, but that she was going to buy a cake for me today. I was studying bookkeeping at the time, and had passed the third grade a few days earlier. When I told my mom, she was very happy and said she would buy me a cake. That was the day. I really wanted to eat a cake. So why was I not feeling well at this time? But when my mom heard about my symptoms, she said it might be heat stroke. I thought that might be so, and furthermore, I decided that I had to get well so that I could eat the cake. I turned on the air conditioner and drank salt water. Then the headache and nausea subsided. Then, I made the ochazuke (a kind of rice with green tea) that I mentioned earlier, and my appetite gradually returned. So, I was suffering from heat stroke after all. At that time, I realized that it is important to eat whatever you can, even if you don’t have an appetite. If I didn’t eat, I would have lost my strength and become weaker. I was really glad that I had an appointment with my mom that day. If I hadn’t had that appointment, I might have died alone in that apartment. Just thinking about it is terrifying. You should never underestimate heat stroke. Moreover, it was a good thing that I wanted to eat cake at that time. If I had not wanted to eat the cake even though we had an appointment, I might have died a lonely death there. Anyway, it was a good thing in the end. Everyone, let’s eat a good meal even if you don’t have an appetite!
