lucky me

Here are two good lunches and one bland one (again, it was because of my shrimp allergy so I couldn't eat the main part of the meal). I just read an article in the New York Times about the struggling school lunch program in NYC. I realized how good kids have it here: if schools don't cook for themselves, they get food that's been centrally prepared (giant kyuushoku kitchens!) and delivered fresh. In either case they get non-processed, healthy, delicious food made from scratch. So here I am, enjoying delicious meals such as this mābō-dōfu:

[clockwise from rice]

- rice (gohan ご飯)
- Szechuan style tofu and pork stew (mābō-dōfu マーボードーフ)
- orange (orenji オレンジ)
- boiled vegetables (yude yasai ゆで野菜)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)
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This was the bland one, it's lacking some croquettes that happened to contain ground shrimp...it was a nice kiriboshi daikon though:

[clockwise from rice]

- rice (gohan ご飯)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)
- dried daikon strips braised in sesame vinegar dressing (kiriboshi daikon no itameni gomasuae 切干大根の炒め煮ごま酢あえ)
- boiled vegetables (yude yasai ゆで野菜)
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The Korean-style meal below was fucking incredible. I can't quite explain how well the "pari-pari" salad tasted--but it was the sauce that did it. I think it was just simple yuzu dressing (Japanese citrus), but it brought the vegetables into joyous Mozart-like harmonies. On a side note, "pari-pari" is fun Japanese onomatopoeia for "crispy" or "crunchy." I found out later that the fried crispy bits (tofu skins?) I put on top of my rice were actually meant for the salad, to make it more crispy...

[clockwise from rice]

- kimchi fried rice (kimuchi chahan キムチチャハン)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)
- "crispy" salad (paripari sarada パリパリサラダ)
- egg drop soup (tamago sūpu たまごスープ)

bah!

As I strive to faithfully document EVERY school lunch I have (since the start of this blog at least) I present a sadly watered down version of last week's kyuushoku. To elaborate: I have a severe shellfish allergy, so whenever shrimp or its cohorts appear on the menu, the school does its best to work around that fact. Or in this case, they just don't give me whatever has shrimp in it. Thus I had a big old steamin' bowl of plain rice, sans delicious looking stew--that unfortunately had some little shrimp in it.

So...it wasn't that interesting, but luckily this only happens maybe once or twice a month. And sometimes the various schools are extremely nice and make me a separate little non-shellfish plate of whatever food it is, lovingly wrapped in plastic with an elaborate handwritten name card on it! Today's lunch was not as carefully planned, c'est la vie. Although the school dietitian (yes, every school has their own full-time dietitian) gave me a copy of the month's menu with today's meal circled in red, and an X through the stew accompanied by a "NO!!". Which I thought was cute.


[clockwise from rice]

- rice (gohan ご飯)
- namul = Korean style sesame vegetables (namuru ナムル)
- seaweed soup (wakame sūpu わかめ スープ)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)

tradition-smacked

After I took the photo today, one of the old lady teachers got word that I had tried and liked her umeboshi, and forcefully piled about three large chunks of it on my rice. It was really, really sour. For those of you not "in-the-know," umeboshi is pickled Japanese plums. They are devastatingly sour, but have a nice dark pink color and also anti-bacterial properties. The only cultural comparison I can think of is something like your grandmother making delicious apple pie and passing down her secret recipe through the generations, only your grandmother is now Japanese and instead of pie we have pickled plums. Or something to that effect.

Speaking of wonderful traditional Japanese food, for the first time this year I had kiriboshi daikon for school lunch. I've been buying this stuff from an old bento box woman near my train station, so it was interesting to compare to the kyuushoku kind. It's daikon (huge white Japanese radish) that's been cut into thin strips and dried, then brought back to life again by stewing it with other traditional ingredients like soy sauce, sake, and fried tofu. It's kind of sweet and nutty, protein packed and very nutritious.

[clockwise from rice]

- rice (gohan ご飯)
- boiled vegetables with broth (yude yasai dashi ゆで野菜 だし)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)
- braised, dried daikon strips (kiriboshi daikon no itameni 切り干し大根の炒め煮)
- fried tofu and capelin roe cakes (tofu no masagoage 豆腐のまさごあげ)

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Yesterday's highlight was a young boy being sung happy birthday to by his classmates, then everyone kanpai-ing him with their milks. It was solemn and wonderful. This lunch was really, really tasty. The chicken dumplings hidden in the soup nearly made me cry. I'm sure you could count the ingredients on one hand, so it was more about subtle harmonies between the ingredients, such as the chicken and ginger. And how in the hell did they stay so juicy? I just made chicken dumplings last week and they turned out dry...yet another reason to speak with the school cooks.


[clockwise from bread]

- "tuna mayo toast" (tsuna mayonēzu tōsuto ツナマヨネーズトースト)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)
- meat dumplings and vegetable soup (nikudango to yasai no sūpu 肉だんごと野菜のスープ)
- mixed canned fruit & yogurt (furūtsu no yōguruto フルーツのヨーグルト)

kyuushoku sexytime

Lunch today was with a raucous 5th grade class, and involved more than one boy showing me his butt. For some reason seeing naked children always makes me feel extremely awkward, like I'm going to get fired just for being there. Obviously the boys in question weren't so concerned. It so happens that one these immodest boys also pointed out to me (in quite vulgar terms) that I should hook up with the homeroom teacher. (I don't remember exactly what he said, but it involved him sliding his finger rhymthically into a hole in his fist.) The teacher slapped the boy softly, but seemed pleased that he had broached the subject of our both being young and single. She told me she was "lookingu fo' boyfurendo." We'll see about that. In contrast to the day's entertainment, the food was fairly regular, although the "nasu" sauce was a nice homage to the fresh eggplant we're having here as summer comes to a close...


[clockwise from spaghetti]

- spaghetti with eggplant meat sauce (nasu iri mīto sōsu supagettei ビーンズいりミート ソーススパゲッテイ)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)
- salad (sarada サラダ)
- roasted potatoes (rōsu poteto ロースポテト)

And yesterday's lunch was one of my favorites this year! It truly was a feast, the cooks going an extra mile with the tender, hollow tofu balls in the soup, fried fish (fried anything is good) with sweet potatoes, two kinds of beans and carrots, and of course the fresh mandarin orange!


[clockwise from rice]

- rice (gohan ご飯)
- "five color" swordfish and vegetable medley (kajiki to yasai no gojikini かじきと野菜の五色煮)
- mandarin orange (mikan みかん)
- traditional Japanese clear soup (sumashi jiru すまし汁)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)

the plight of the kyuushoku cook

I'm quite curious about the cooks behind the magic of kyuushoku, and would like to interview them when my Japanese is better. In the meantime I did come across this study, published by the Japan Society for Occupational Health. It points out that kyuushoku cooks' jobs are, uh, not the greatest--their work is literally "backbreaking":

"The median of the values for Japanese school cooks' workload, derived by the Visual Analogue Scale method ranging from 0(easy) to 10(severe), was 8.5. Concerning the possibility of occurrence of musculoskeletal problems, 83% of the respondents pointed out that the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders was certain, and 17% of them estimated that it was probable...The participants also pointed out that Japanese school lunch cooks were exposed to various problems, i.e., excessive workloads for women, and too few replacements of manual work by machinery. On the other hand, the cleanliness of the school kitchen, quality of meals, and conscientious cooking work were evaluated as very high."

Ouchie! What comes next? Shall I lead a kyuushoku workers uprising? For starters, next time I see a cook, I'm going to squeeze their hand gently and gaze into their eyes with sympathy and appreciation.

MORBID

Oh my god! Let's all freak out because of a well-named flu! I came to work today to find half the school had been quarantined at home because of THE SWINE FLU. Part of me was thinking, Jesus, half these kids are probably having a great time at home right now. And part of me felt bad because they might die. Just kidding.

Speaking of death, today one of the teachers casually mentioned the following:

" You know science teacher? [pointing to her vacant desk]. Bad news. She die yesterday. Heart was bad." I was then handed a cheaply photocopied memo with a few sentences announcing her death. Granted, the woman was quite bitchy and not so popular, but it seemed a somewhat tragic homage to her life. I had only spoken to her once or twice (music and science teachers don't share classes) but I was kind of shocked.

But onto lighter matters, such as the food. It was really good, one of my favorites today: "nikujaga." Mention this word to pretty much any Japanese person and their face lights up with memories of standing next to their grandmother in the kitchen on a crisp autumn night, the rustle of maple leaves outside the window, and so on. It's simply a meat and potato stew. But one of those beautiful pillars of Japanese home cooking, a harmony of sweet and salty (mirin and soy sauce), tender potatoes in a rich pork gravy, carrots and peas providing a colorful backdrop...

And here we are:

[clockwise from rice]

- "seashore"(!) rice (iso gohan 磯ご飯)
- meat and potato stew (niku jaga 肉じゃが)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)
- boiled vegetables (yude yasai ゆで野菜)
- Japanese pear (nashi なし)

short and sweet

Not much to say today! It was a welcome meal after lots of running around. The teacher was kind enough to give me seconds. I ran into one of the cooks after lunch, they are dressed head to toe in sterile white gowns, masks, and gloves. Like they're about to perform some risky surgery, only they're making salads for children. I bowed deeply.


[clockwise from stew]

- "cream" stew (kurīmu shichū クリームシチュー)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)
- chickpea salad (hiyokomameiri sarada ひよこ豆入りサラダ)
- "sesame toast" (sesame tōsuto セサミトースト)

za ne = c'est la vie

In the land of teaching, there are ups and downs. Today was a down day. I won't dwell on it, only to say it included mostly bored, sassy little shit six graders. And a second grade class completely overrun by two incredibly austistic children. Way to go Japan, just stick 'em in normal schools, maybe they'll pick up a word or two. Needless to say the school lunch was a nice way to end the day. The mackerel was succulent!

[clockwise from rice]

- rice (gohan ご飯)
- "miso" grilled Spanish mackerel (sawara no misoyaki さわらのみそ焼き)
- braised potatoes (jagaimo no kinpira itame じゃがいものきんぴら炒め)
- vegetables dressed w/soy broth (dashi shouyu ae だし醤油あえ)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)

annnnnnnnd...we're back.

Welcome back creepy stalkers! I mean, friends and family!

It's the start of September, and that means the long summer vacation is over. Typhoon season is upon us, and my apartment smells like musty old socks now. But no matter, I'm once again nourished by sweet sweet kyuushoku.

I had lunch with a first grade class today. They were enthralled, as was I. I would say the amount of enthrallment was equal. Someone asked me something about bugs, and I answered "cockroach" which caused the entire class to erupt in pandemonium. It was possibly the wrong answer. A girl told me she likes fish skin the best, and saves it for last. Imagine hearing that from and American kid. Ha!

Speaking of which, we had a nice salmon teriyaki, although the picture doesn't do it much justice:

[clockwise from rice]

- rice (gohan ご飯)
- salmon teriyaki (shake no teriyaki 鮭の照り焼き)
- braised potatoes (jagaimo no kinpira itame じゃがいものきんぴら炒め)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)
- miso soup (sumashi jiru すまし汁)
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Yesterday was the first school lunch I've had to eat alone. Normally after I finish teaching 4th period, I go wait in the teacher's lounge until a gaggle of students fetch me. But the teacher simply forgot. So I ended up eating in the lounge, with the teacher apologizing to me at least, say, 40 times. This morning she continued by apologizing to the entire faculty. I thought she was going to commit ritual seppuku. Robbed of the pleasure of company, perhaps the meal was not so memorable. The P.E. teacher went to charming lengths to secure me some dipping sauce however.

[clockwise from bread]

- "shortening" bread (shōtoningu pan ショートニングパン)
- milk (gyuunuu 牛乳)
- boiled cabbage (yude kyabetsu ゆでキャベツ)
- bean croquette (bīnzukorokke ビーンスコロッケ)
- seaweed and egg soup (wakame to tomago sūpu わかめと卵のスープ )