Berkeley Diary
Masaki YAMAOKA
Dec/14/2005 My Own Cooking
Since
I came to Berkeley
without family, I have to eat out or cook for myself. At the beginning
of the life here, I decided to cook for myself, because I should
constrain the
calorie of my own meal and considerate the balance of nutrient, because
of a
diabetes. As a matter of fact, I enjoy cooking every day. That is good
for me
to change feeling. My favorite dish is Curry Rice, Mapo-Tofu,
Chow-mien,
etc. And the best one is Miso Soup! It is incomparably more
delicious than
the instant one, which is too salty. I have tried various ingredients
until
now. My own ranking of the ingredients in Miso Soup is as below:
(English)
(Japanese)
1 Napa Cabbage
Hakusai
2
Long
Onion
Negi
3 Seaweed
Wakame
4
Onion
Tamanegi
5
Bean
Curd
Tofu
6
Potato
Jagaimo
7
Cabbage
Kyabetsu
8 Egg
Plant
Nasu
9 Mushroom
Shiitake
10 Small
Fish
Jako
By the
way, I would like to pay attention to the names
of vegetables, which are as indicated at the supermarkets in Berkeley.
Especially, the relationship between negi (long onion)
and tamanegi
(onion) is very interesting. In Japanese, negi is the unmarked word,
which is basic,
and tamanegi is the marked word, which is derivative. On the contrary,
in
English, onion is the unmarked word, and long onion is the marked word.
That’s
why Japanese people like negi very much, but it seems to be unpopular
for American
people.