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.
Proofreading
by ProofreadingServices.com
Picture
by Atori
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