Exchange Student Food at Michi Cafe by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Exchange Student Food at Michi Cafe by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Since I had lived in Japan as an exchange student with Youth for Understanding in high school, I naturally wanted my daughter Florence to learn about this country when she was growing up.

My husband Laurent was subject to yakitori (sweet-flavored, chicken shish kebab) and tonkatsu (breaded pork fillet of Portuguese origin – the Portuguese had a trading post at Hirado, Japan), because he did not like sushi.  He did approve of teaching Florence about Japanese culture, so I had a “go-ahead” on teaching Florence how to eat udon soup with chopsticks.

I had Florence read an article I wrote for the Monterey Country Weekly (Circulation: 100,000) to give her background on how I learned to eat soup with chopsticks as a teen for the “Side Dish” column of the Weekly before we ventured out to Japanese restaurants in our neighborhood.

Slurping Sisters (Original Title Selected by the Editors)

As I changed my inside slippers for my outside shoes, my Japanese host sister said, “We will eat lunch now.”

She then led me out of the house, both of us ducking under all the doorframes as we went.  It was my first day as an exchange student in Japan.

We walked through narrow, winding streets without sidewalks, fighting for space with trucks, bikes, and cars.

We arrived at the restaurant, a dark wooden building.  Curved strips of blue-and-white checked fabric with large, red kanji (Chinese) characters written on them swayed in the open doorway.  There was a display case with plastic models of the foods served inside.

I pointed and asked, “Is that eel? Shark? Octopus? Sea urchin” Sea cucumber?”

I did not want to eat those things. I made my host sister look up all these words in her Japanese-English dictionary.

Finally, I chose what my host sister told me was nabeyaki udon soup, which was made with thick, flat, wheat noodles.  I chose this soup, because it had shrimp, onion, carrots, and shiitake mushrooms in it.  There was only one suspicious item in it.

“What’s the white stuff with the bright pink edges?” I asked my host sister.

“What is ‘stuff’?” my host sister replied not totally grasping colloquial English.

“Never mind,” I said.

“What’s that?” I said as I rephrased my question.

“That’s kamaboko,” she said.

“What’s kamaboko?” I asked

My host sister leafed through her dictionary some more.

“Fish cake,” she announced.  The kamaboko was a small oval.  I reasoned that if it tasted repulsive, I could choke it down in one swallow.

The other patrons discreetly looked at me when we entered the restaurant and sat down.  A foreigner, a gaijin, was a rare sight in the 1980s.

The waitress brought us noodle soups and a pair of chopsticks.  I knew I was supposed to eat first, because I was the guest.  I smiled and waited for the waitress to bring me a flat-bottomed spoon like they do in Chinese restaurants.  No spoon was forthcoming.

My host sister and I smiled at each other while our soup cooled.  I looked at the two people on the other side of the restaurant.  I saw that they were picking out their noodles and other ingredients with chopsticks.  I started doing the same.

I immediately noticed that Chinese and Japanese chopsticks are different.  Chinese chopsticks are about six inches long and have pointed tips, which you never use for stabbing your food.  I had to practice getting the right grip and distance on my Japanese chopsticks.

Pretty soon I was left with a bowl of broth.  I was stumped.  I discreetly glanced at the same diners, who had helped me out before.  They were drinking soup from their bowl.

So, I began to sip more quietly from my bowl.  My dainty host sister’s slurping surprised me.  In Japan, slurping can show your appreciation to the chef.  It is also hard to eat noodles without doing otherwise.

I liked the soup and made a mental note that udon was a good food choice.

Even that thick, fish paste patty with the bright, pink edges tasted good.

End of article –

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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