Mama loves you

Yomiuri recently had a poll. "What is your mom's most common cooking?" 19% those polled responded "it is "it is Nikujag "(simmered meat and potato), 16% said Miso soup, 15% of people responded "Nimono" (Simmered Dishes), No.4 is Curry rice, No.5 is "Imo no nimono"(Potato soy sauce stew).

They don't reveal all the details of their research such as age, gender etc. But most of those responding were likely adults in their 30's and probably not teenagers. Generally speaking, our image for "mom's most common cooking" are those types of food which are kind of simple, but we never get tired of it, even though we eat it everyday. I feel as if Japanese have some sort of soy sauce DNA, during childhood we loved eating hamburg steak, pasta, and fried chicken, and curry. Those in their 20's might respond, BBQ, Beef Bowl, Sukiyaki, Pasta, such large portions and meat intensive dishes. But when we reach a certain generation maturity, I think most people start to enjoy Nimono, Fish, Tofu or such simple, soy sauce based meals, less oily dishes. I suppose in other countries these kinds of changing tastes would happen as well.

Perhaps it is our common perception that is being revealed here. I mean even though the results of the poll were such, I imagine the mother's of those surveyed had much more variety in their cooking. For example, speaking of my mom's common cooking, her jiao-zi, ground meat rolled in cabbage leaves, and tomato stew were always very delicious, yet I would still choose Nimono as my mom's most common cooking. Because the warmth of the kitchen, an apron, a bit of steam rising from a pot of simmering Nimono, the sound of food being chopped on a cutting board, those are the common warm images associated with mom like in these TV commercials.

Comments

[Mari]

Hi cecile
You are kneen, yes season and food related so tightly I think. Now it is good season to eat Bamboo now.

Hi Charles
Really, always Japanese want to know what is your mom's cooking. ha ha ha

Hi AB
Fried Mars Bar?! It might be over 1500 calories.

Hi Joe
I visit mom every two weeks, because I miss her cook most he he he

Hi huang
I love Korean food, how many time did I tell you? I really love it!! Thank you for recipe always. Anyway :-)
it means Gobo?? Yes i love it!

[huang]

Deja vu indeed !

I'm reminded that quite a number of my Singaporean friends were crazy over a Korean soup containing potatoes. Is it an Asian thing or what ?

Here's the link to a recipe for Korean spicy chicken and potato stew http://kr.blog.yahoo.com/huangsy88/1242859.html

One of friends once confessed that she has aged and realised that when she acquired a liking for bitter gourd (cooked with pork ribs and black salted soya beans), which she used to hate.

Mari, do you eat bitter gourd ?

[Huang]

OMG ! If Charles had not pointed it out, I wouldn't have realised that the bunny finally wrote something.

If only tokiokun would work over at my blog.

[Joe]

hhmm.. i miss my mom cooking.. haven't been home for 2 years now.. maybe someday scientist can figure out the secret behind mom's cooking.. and put it in a small sachet then sell it for 50 cents.. wait.. they already did.. it's ajinomoto.. hehehe.. =P
mari.. isn't ajinomoto some sort of MSG?

[AzianBrewer]

Ma used to make some killer(awesome) fried pork chops!!!! People would dip anything in batter and fried them. The Scot like to fry up their Mars candy bar.

[Charles]

Ha.. you remind me of something that happened almost exactly a year ago. I was visiting Yasukuni Jinja during a festival, I was waiting around for the events to start, so I stopped at the food stalls and bought some ramen. While I was sitting at a table eating, a young man dressed in a suit and tie came up to me and asked if I wouldn't mind answering a survey for his class at Todai.
He asked me, when I think of my Mom's cooking, what kinds of food do I remember, and what kinds of foods she made did I really like? I thought a long time, and then I told him, my mom was a pretty bad cook, and I couldn't think of ANY food she made that I especially liked.

BTW, isn't that cute how tokiokun writes a little message once in a while?

[cecile]

i think people here tend to eat fried food from their toddler years up to old age. people here arent very health conscious that's why.

for some unknown reason, whenever i think of countries with four seasons, i feel that they are able to remember more things clearly.

just when you mentioned having different types of favorite foods while growing up, i think memories are more colorful when you say "i used to eat pizza a lot when i was young, blah blah" instead of "i've been eating fried food all my life". hehe. Am I making sense?
Probably not. =)

[BlogPetの「tokiokun」]

きょう、ひまをblogしたいなぁ。
mariでひまみたいなblogしなかった。