Sunday, September 04, 2005

Childhood Food Memories Meme


Obachan (About 5 y.o. ???)

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I was tagged by rae of bunnyfoot to present the top five childhood food memories that I miss. Now they are ready with another photo from the days when I was a cute little girl...

1. Egg yolk mixed rice
My grandparents used to raise hens and it was my job to pick eggs every morning when I was a kid. As a reward, my mom would put a fresh, raw egg yolk on a bowl of warm rice for me and seasoned it with a little soy sauce (and a pinch of ajinomono --- the inevitable.) It was a sheer joy to break the bright orange-colored egg yolk to mix with the soy sauce first, and then with the whole rice in the bowl. I loved the dish so much that I had it almost 3 times a day every day for a few weeks, and I ended up having hives. Now I don’t really feel like trying it any more.

2. Fish meat hamburger steak
This was my typical lunch on weekdays in my childhood (when not at school). My parents were both at work on weekdays, so I had lunch with my grandparents at home. Our lunch was usually something easy to prepare --- leftover miso soup from breakfast, tofu, pickles, leftover simmered food from the night before or stir-fried veggies, AND this “fish meat hamburger steak.” I guess it was not too different from fish meat sausage, but just shaped in a bigger, ham-like shape, and all I had to do was to slice it and fry in a frying pan. Maybe it contained bunch of chemical additives at that time, but I just loved it with a little ketchup.

3. Tamagoyaki-wrapped onigiri for lunch on the beach

I'm eating something else, not onigiri in this photo. The lady next to me is mom's friend.

My house was really close to the beach ( 1 min walk, maybe?) and my family often went on a picnic there. It was rather a rocky seashore, and in my childhood picnic photos, we are usually sitting on big rocks. My mom often made tamagoyaki-wrapped onigiri (rice balls wrapped by thin omelet) for me and my sister. She seemed to have believed that tamagoyaki-wrapped rice balls were more sophisticated than seaweed-wrapped version, and IIRC, she would add a little ajinomoto to the rice before making the special rice balls.

4. Miso soup porridge
This was actually the baby food that my sister and I were most often given. Either my mom or my grandma (or sometimes dad or grandpa) cooked leftover rice in leftover miso soup, added some hot water if it was too salty for babies, and fed us with it. When we got older, we were fed with egg-mixed version of the miso soup porridge more often. I still love it and make it once in a while.

5. House Purin Mix (Instant pudding mix by HOUSE)
This is a Japanese style instant pudding mix from House (a Japanese brand), which was a big hit about 30 years ago. All you had to do was to add hot water to dissolve the mix, then pour in small pudding cups and refrigerate. Unlike the real custard pudding, the texture of the "purin (pudding pronounced in Japanese way)" was so soft. Actually it was quite a culture shock when I tasted a steam-baked custard pudding for the first time. 
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Gee, doesn’t it sound like my childhood was full of egg products, chemical additives and MSG!? For the defense of my mom --- No it wasn’t like that, honestly. She fed me with lots of nutritious foods, too, and I think she did a pretty good job considering how healthy I am now. But somehow, rather unhealthy foods/drinks seem to have left a stronger impression on me in my younger days...;P

OK, here’s the four bloggers I’m going to pass this nostalgic task onto:
1. Ting-aling of World Class Cuisine
2. JMom of Our Kitchen
3. Kristi of Would You Like Chocolate or Vanilla
4. Amy of Blue Lotus

And here, as the rule says, I made a list with my site at the #5 position. Those who are tagged by me will need to remove the #1 from the list and push up the 4 remaining blogs, then add your blog as #5. (Link to the meme post of each blog on the list.) That’s the rule…I think.

1. Once upon a feast
2. Belly-timber
3. I'm mad and i eat
4. Bunnyfoot
5. Obachan’s Kitchen & Balcony Garden

Enjoy! :D

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obachan, you are so cute in this photo. And you were already practising for a future of food blogging ;). 

Posted by OsloFoodie

Anonymous said...

Obachan;
sooooo cute......I had the same haircut!!!! Didn't we all? ha ha ha.... 

Posted by Carlyn

Anonymous said...

you are soooooo cuuuute obachan..Feel like pinching those cheeks!! :) 

Posted by keona

Anonymous said...

Been a silent reader all this while, but looking at today's post, i have to say something.. u are so cute :) 

Posted by mrs reader

Anonymous said...

Obachan,

All out smile when I saw your picture! Now it reminds me of my 5 yr. old niece, i terribly miss her! Thanks for posting your cute picture and by the way, I am one of your avid reader and loving your blog so much! 

Posted by Xtine

Anonymous said...

OsloFoodie 
Maybe somehow I knew what I would be doing in the future ;)

Carlyn
Oh, did you?! Was it that popular?? I hated that haircut more than anything!!

keona
Yeah, plump cheeks, aren’t they?

mrs reader
Thank you for leaving a comment! :D Yeah, I WAS cute, I guess… Ah, time is cruel.

Xtine
Thanks! It’s always so encouraging to hear that someone likes my humble blog. Kids are wonderful everywhere in the world, aren’t they? 

Posted by obachan

Anonymous said...

awwww heck, i know it's already been said, but.... so cute! my childhood pictures are of a scowling, polyester jumpsuit clad, scraggly haired girl hiding behind her daddy's checkerboard pants leg. thanks for sharing those awesome photos! 

Posted by rae

Anonymous said...

Obacham I'm gonna say it again, you are SO SO cute! Those cheeks, oh man, i wanna bite 'em ha ha.. I think I had a similar haircut too. hm~ ajinomoto was my best friend. LOL. what a fun post this is :) 

Posted by Kristi

Anonymous said...

Obacham, you certainly were cute. I love reading about growing up in different cultures. I particularly love the egg yolk in rice story.  

Posted by Ruth

Anonymous said...

Obachan,

Thanks for sharing these great memories! My husband also has very fond memories of the egg-yolk and rice dish from his childhood in Japan. He mentioned that his mother often added some butter to the rice - is that unusual? His parents grew up in Japan after the war, and their families couldn't afford eggs so they just had rice-shoyu-butter for breakfast. I was surprised to hear the butter was more affordable than eggs after the war.

Funny you mentioned the hives - he also got the hives after eating this dish every day, and then his mother stopped giving it to him and it went away. I think I'll surprise him to a nice nostalgic breakfast tomorrow... :o) 

Posted by Kris

Anonymous said...

rae 
Oh, I bet you were so cute in your childhood photos even if you were scowling.

Kristi
Gee, it’s amazing how popular that haircut was… I’m happy to find some friends to share the trauma with. I mean, didn’t boys tease you for that haircut?!
Speaking of ajinomoto, some people here say that it ruined our ability to appreciate the real, natural taste of foods. mmmm... it might be true.

Ruth
Oh, thank you. I was a bit worried that many people might think that dish is gross. I’m glad that you liked that story. : )

Kris
Oh, here’s another egg-yolk-and-rice fan ! I’m so happy. The rice-shoyu-butter breakfast story is surprising to me, too. It must have been true in some places but not everywhere in Japan at that time, I guess. In my family, we never used butter until I started going to junior high or high school, and it was for baking only.
I bet your husband loved your surprise breakfast ;) 

Posted by obachan

Anonymous said...

Hey.. Obachan,
Your baby picture is way too cute..!!!!!!!!
 

Posted by Big BoK

Anonymous said...

OMG!! Obachan... meccha kawaii!!! Hontoni 5 sai na no???  

Posted by fish fish

Anonymous said...

what a lovely child...the photos are wonderful,obachan. 

Posted by stel

Anonymous said...

Hi Obachan!
Thanks for sharing your food experiences and adorable photos of yourself. So cute!!! I'm a big fan of your blog. :) 

Posted by sue

Anonymous said...

B ig Bok 
Thanks. I guess I WAS cute once… ;P

fish fish
Oh, I’m SOOOO happy that you finally left a comment to this blog after I changed the template to this one!!! I’m not sure if I was really 5 y.o. in this pic. Could be younger… Anyway, my being a cute little girl is “過去の栄光” ne.

stel

Thanks. I’m glad that they turned out OK. The photo albums were dirty and when I was taking the photo of those photos, they reflected the light in the way I didn’t want, so I had a bit hard time…but it was worth it :D

sue
Oh, thank you for being a fan of my blog. How nice of you to say that! Hope you come visit often :) 

Posted by obachan

Anonymous said...

Oh so cute! What gorgeous photos!

Thanks for sharing your childhood memories with us. I too am a big egg-on-rice fan. I still crave it for dinner these days. I love that tense moment when you make that first piercing of the sunny yolk! 

Posted by AugustusGloop

Anonymous said...

Wow, another egg-on-rice fan! I didn't expect to find so many folks who love that dish. Honestly I was worried that that part of the meme might put off the readers. 

Posted by obachan

Anonymous said...

Hi Obachan,

What a cute little girl you were! =) I remember eating egg yolk on rice in the exact same fashion when I was young too. Unfortunately with the rise in salmonella cases, I think we all stopped eating those bowls of rice when we got older. 

Posted by Reid

Anonymous said...

Hi Reid,
Oh you, too, ate egg-yolk-on rice when you were small? Hmmm... the dish seems to have been more popular than I had thought. I didn't know that salmonella was the concern, but it makes sense. 

Posted by obachan

Anonymous said...

Hello Obachan - Those pictures are so...Kawaii-no! My Grandparents used to feed me what they called Tamago-Meshi, basically Egg cracked over hot rice with shoyu and green onions. Haven't done this in many years, due to the same reason as Reid. But Thank You for such nice memories, that trigger memories of my own.... 

Posted by Kirk

Anonymous said...

Hi Kirk,
Oh! Welcome to the International "we-ate-raw-egg-mixed-rice-in-childhood" club :D Honestly I thought that only Japanese and Rocky Balboa were the ones who could eat eggs raw. So happy to find this many people to share the nostalgy with. 

Posted by obachan