Japanese with anime voice: episode84
Hello, I’m Sachi.
June 27 is Chirashizushi Day. Do you know what chirashizushi is?
It is a type of sushi with colorful ingredients on top of 酢飯 (sumeshi) to give it a gorgeous appearance.
Sumeshi is written 酢 (Su) and 飯 (han) of ご飯 (Gohan) and reads “酢飯 (sumeshi)”. It is a mixture of rice and vinegar.
There are various theories about the birth of chirashizushi, but one of the most popular is that during the Edo period (1603-1867), when there was a great flood in Bizen Okayama, Mitsumasa Ikeda, who was a 藩主 (hanshu), issued a decree for one soup and one vegetable in order to save money.
藩主 (hanshu) is the lord of the land. In the old days in Japan, regional divisions and the administrative structure that governed them were called 藩 (Han). The person who organized them was called a 藩主 (hanshu).
And ” one soup and one vegetable” means one soup and one side dish. The “one-soup-and-one-vegetable” ordinance was a measure to limit the number of side dishes to only one, in addition to rice and miso soup. The common people wanted to enjoy their meals, even if it was just to save money, so they decided to make a dish with various ingredients as a way out, which is said to be a strong candidate for the origin of chirashizushi.
I also think this is a strong theory. I think Japanese people are very specialized in thinking about how to satisfy as much as possible and how to comply with the rules. And they don’t forget to add color.
But still, it’s amazing how creative they are. If you make omelet, ohitashi, and grilled fish, you would have several side dishes, but if you put them all on top of rice, it would all fit in one dish. Well, that may seem a bit aggressive. The idea is that if you put the side dishes on separate plates, you have one dish each, but if you put them all on one plate, you only have one plate, so it becomes one soup and one vegetable. It’s the difference between counting by plate or by type of side dish. Well, the fact that you found it is a good sign that they have a good mind.
Incidentally, the basis of Japanese food is ” One soup and three dishes. This means that for every bowl of rice, there should be one soup and three side dishes. This means that you can take in a good balance of the three nutrients that the body needs: those that provide energy, those that build the body, and those that regulate the body’s condition. The phrase “one soup, one vegetable, and three vegetables” is also a term that does not include the word “staple food” because it is called with rice as the main ingredient.
However, it is not easy to make three side dishes for the family every day. It is also necessary to think about how to avoid having the same menu every day. In such cases, there is a way to make miso soup with lots of ingredients. Miso used in miso soup has health benefits such as reducing the risk of lifestyle-related diseases and preventing aging, but if you add a lot of vegetables, you can drink all the nutrients dissolved from the vegetables. Therefore, even if you don’t necessarily make a one-soup-three-course meal, you can still get all the nutrients your body needs by making a miso soup with lots of ingredients.
Our weekday supper is only miso soup. Recently, I have become addicted to one rice ball and Donburi Miso Soup. We eat miso soup with Donburi. Donburi is probably about three to four bowls of normal miso soup. The miso soup is made with just the usual ingredients: fried bean curd and tofu. I would have added wakame seaweed, but it is expensive, and sadly, I can’t afford to buy it every time. Miso soup alone may not be nutritious enough. My ideal one-soup-three-course meal would be miso soup, omelet, grilled salmon, and natto! Instead of natto, boiled spinach or komatsuna would be good. I mean, if you think about it, one soup and three vegetables is a very extravagant meal!
I just thought that if I had chirashisushi and miso soup with lots of ingredients, the number of dishes would be simple, but the contents would be very luxurious. And it’s full of nutrients. That’s good. Chirashizushi, which I mentioned at the beginning of this article, actually has various names depending on the region, such as gomokuzushi, barazushi, mazezushi, gomokuchirashi, and so on. And the ingredients used also vary from region to region. However, in recent years, it has become common to eat chirashizushi mainly on occasions of good fortune, so the culture and customs are similar in all regions. If you have a chance, please try it too.
