Seven-Herb Rice Porridge

 Generally, Japanese people eat seven-herb rice porridge on January 7. It is an old Japanese tradition. Some people believe it can keep people healthy.

 Actually, I never ate it when I was a child. Because my mother tended to doubt all superstitions.

 My mother was a strong woman. She was always the leader of our family. But she got Alzheimer’s. Then, my father became the leader of our family. But at that time, he had disabilities in his body. He just provided direction to me.

 One January 7, he bought a package of seven herbs and said, “We should eat seven-herb rice porridge. Make it.” I didn’t know he loved that kind of tradition. I was surprised. But I tried to make it. I used to work at a restaurant. Cooking is not difficult for me. Actually, I made all my family’s meals at that time. But I needed to check how to make seven-herb rice porridge on the internet.

 I assumed I made a perfect seven-herb rice porridge. It was the same as the sample picture on the internet. I proudly served the seven-herb rice porridge to my parents. But my father was not happy about it.

 He said, “This is not seven-herb rice porridge.”

 I was confused. Seven-herb rice porridge is not a difficult dish. Could the information on the internet be wrong? According to my father, I needed to add more water to make it. His ideal seven-herb porridge must be much more like soup. In Japan, rice porridge is served to sick persons. It is easy to digest. In this case, they add a lot of water. But for healthy people, porridge doesn’t need so much water.

 It is possible that his image of seven-herb porridge formed when he was a child. He had ten siblings. His family was poor. It was during World War II. In those days, many people were starving.

 Maybe my grandmother needed to add a lot of water when she made seven-herb porridge. She didn’t have enough rice to serve ten children.

 I didn’t argue with my father. I remade it into his ideal seven-herb porridge. From that day on, I made his ideal seven-herb porridge for him every year.

 There is no such thing as one correct answer in cooking.

 

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Picture by Atori

It Takes Ten Years for a Dissatisfied Customer to Come Back

Yakiniku is a popular restaurant style in Japan. You can cook your meal by yourself.

My wife, her parents, and I sometimes go to restaurants. Yakiniku is one of our favorite restaurant styles.

One day, we decided to go our favorite yakiniku restaurant. But the restaurant was closed. So, we went to our second-favorite yakiniku restaurant. But the restaurant was also closed. We could have gone to a different style restaurant. But we really wanted to eat yakiniku. My mother-in-law said, “I know another yakiniku restaurant. But it was not good ten years ago.”

We discussed wanting to eat yakiniku. We didn’t care about the quality of the yakiniku. So, we went to the not-so-good yakiniku restaurant.

But, unexpectedly, the yakiniku restaurant was good. It had a clean room, tables, and chairs. The staff were so polite and friendly. The food was delicious.

Maybe there had been drastic changes during those ten years. The store manager might have changed. Or their operating policies might have changed. I don’t know why, but that restaurant became a delicious yakiniku restaurant.

But if you think about this story from the yakiniku restaurant manager’s side, it is a scary story. If a restaurant gives a bad impression to a customer, the customer would not come back for at least ten years.

I used to work in a restaurant.

Dear friends who work in a restaurant, you are doing a great job. You have to concentrate hard every day. Kudos to you. Kudos again.

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Picture by Asariya

Presents from the Sand Dunes

I visited Tottori prefecture with my wife, her sister, and her sister’s husband.

If you visit Tottori prefecture, you should visit the sand dunes. It is the most famous spot for visitors to Tottori.

We enjoyed climbing up and down the dunes. We also rode on a camel. I strongly recommend visiting the sand dunes.

After we enjoyed the sand dunes, we went to our hotel. Walking around the sand dunes was hard work. I jumped into my bed to relax. After that, we planned to go out for dinner. The hotel was near the sea. We could eat fresh seafood there.

Then, I got up. I was surprised. There was a lot of sand all around my bed. I couldn’t understand how it had happened. I lost my mind for a while.

At that time, I was wearing longer pants than normal. So, I had rolled up my pants. Doing this made pockets in the bottoms of my pants. I walked up and down the sand dunes. The pockets filled with sand. When I jumped into bed, the sand spread around my bed.

This could be a present from the sand dunes. If I slept in that bed, I could dream about the sand dunes. Thank you, sand dunes.

No. I wanted to sleep in a clean bed.

Dear friends, if you visit the Tottori sand dunes, you should wear tight-fitting pants.

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Picture by dmitry16