It’s the good pumpkin, P.Ok. Sanjun!
It’s Halloween as soon as once more in Japan, which suggests… Nicely, it’s nonetheless probably not clear what Halloween means in Japan. Certain, there are a whole lot of decorations and different merchandise on the market, however so far as an agreed-upon set of customs, it’s a bit foggy right here. The closest we had was most likely the large road occasion in Shibuya, however that appears to have gotten out of hand and is now being clamped down on.
So, all of us should discover our personal Halloween spirit for now and provide you with concepts on what to do. Luckily, our boss Yoshio is an everlasting spring of concepts, however sadly, solely about one in ten are remotely good concepts.
▼ Previous concepts embody plastering his automotive.
So, when Yoshio approached our author P.Ok. Sanjun with a enjoyable Halloween experiment, P.Ok. was hesitant, to say the least.
▼ Yoshio: “Hey, P.Ok., I obtained an important thought!”
▼ P.Ok.: “…”
▼ Yoshio: “…”
▼ P.Ok.: “…”
▼ Yoshio: “…”
▼ P.Ok.: “…”
▼ Yoshio: “I mentioned I obtained…”
▼ P.Ok.: “Ugh, what’s it?”
▼ Yoshio: “I noticed a decorative Halloween pumpkin on the market on the flower store simply now! It’s solely 2,500 yen (US$16)! Why don’t you strive consuming it?”
Taking into account that almost all Japanese folks don’t have any expertise carving jack-o-lanterns, this concept didn’t appear so loopy to P.Ok. In spite of everything, pumpkins are fairly a standard fixture in Japanese meals, and a Halloween pumpkin didn’t appear all that completely different from the sort he’s typically eaten up to now.
P.Ok. discovered himself inquisitive about what it would style like, so he headed over to the flower store to purchase it. Whereas there he requested the employees in the event that they’ve ever eaten a Halloween pumpkin however they only checked out him surprisingly.
The Japanese phrase for pumpkin is “kabocha” which, just like the English phrase “pumpkin,” truly very loosely covers all kinds of winter squashes. Even the pumpkins used for making jack-o-lanterns can fluctuate fairly a bit resembling Howden, Connecticut Fields, and Autumn Golds. In the meantime, in Japan the everyday kabocha is the Cucurbita maxima, a small, inexperienced gourd with a delightfully candy style… or so I’m advised. I’ve been so traumatized from the stench of jack-o-lantern innards that I can’t go close to the stuff.
▼ A lower of kabocha
P.Ok.’s personal Halloween trauma, nonetheless, had but to occur and he eagerly started working making ready his pumpkin for consumption. For all he knew, it would even be higher than a kabocha. It definitely was each lots larger and lots tougher than he anticipated.
After making use of a whole lot of elbow grease, he managed to noticed his approach by means of the pumpkin, instantly down the center very similar to one would to a kabocha.
He then diced the agency flesh of the pumpkin very similar to one would with a kabocha. A typical was of serving kabocha in Japan is to cube it and let it stew in some flavorful seasonings like mirin, sugar, and soy sauce.
Discovering a kabocha recipe on-line, P.Ok. first microwaved his pumpkin cubes to make them extra tender.
He then allow them to simmer in a pot of varied tasty liquids to lock in a great deal of taste.
It was surprisingly easy and P.Ok. felt very pleased with how motherly his cooking appeared.
The one visible distinction was that the outer layer was orange as a substitute of kabocha’s characteristically inexperienced exterior.
▼ For comparability, right here is a few kabocha, cooked in an analogous approach. Discover the inexperienced tinges.
Our author was trying ahead to attempting it out. In spite of everything, the bar was set fairly low, even when it was respectable however not fairly pretty much as good as kabocha, this is able to nonetheless be a relative success. However, if it turned out to be higher, than this may very well be a culinary discovery on par with placing an ice cream cone in ramen.
P.Ok. popped a morsel in his mouth and instantly handed down his verdict…
▼ P.Ok.: “Oh, this sucks.”
The primary disappointment got here when he bit into the grainy, fibrously crunchy texture of the pumpkin that was nothing just like the hot-potato-like fluffiness of kabocha. The feel was so unforgivingly entrenched within the pumpkin flesh that he needed to tolerate it proper up till he might swallow it.
The style might finest be described as “non-existent” apart from the sugary style that he injected into it. If it weren’t for that, this is able to most likely have been inedible for him. P.Ok. would finest sum up pumpkin as “an object that is ready to be ingested” slightly than a meals.
There was additionally a really uncomfortable bitterness within the aftertaste, which contained only a trace of kabocha essence in it. P.Ok. was in a position to cling to that ethereal thread of tastiness that linked pumpkins and kabocha.
P.Ok. was now sure that Halloween pumpkins will not be meant to be eaten except he ended up in a Mad-Max-style post-apocalyptic world the place meals was extraordinarily scarce. He felt the one factor left to do was to inflict this exact same agony on his boss Yoshio because it was all his thought.
▼ Yoshio: “Hmm… Mm… So… What, is that this like a melon or one thing?”
▼ P.Ok.: “It’s a Halloween pumpkin! This entire silly factor was your thought! REMEMBER?!”
Yoshio: “You… made me drop my melon!”
And so ends one other Halloween in Japan. We’ll work out one thing worthwhile to do considered one of these years.
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