Taste: The Fortune Hiding Right Under Your Nose
[Text and images by student Amir El Boukfaoui]
My adventure to Japan has led me to try an assortment of dishes. The dish that sparked my obsession with fish and rice all started at Sushi Shirakawa. A small not-so-noticeable place in Koto city, the interior is simple. There is a bar where you can watch the chefs make the food with various fish on ice on display. There is also a table section behind the bar made private by wooden walls which barely cover the top of an individual’s head once seated. The prepared dishes lead me to question everything I know about Asian cuisine especially the variety of tastes.
Taste is a wonderful sense. It functions by helping your brain decide what is edible and what is not, as well as what the brain should want to consume and what it should want to decline. Everybody from all over the world from all diverse cultures at one point has been that child who tastes their first world rocking food item. Every one of those children respond to that taste in a separate way. While some children are paralyzed by frozen joy, others are shocked and surprised by the sudden emotion, and the rest dislike the feeling and the taste.
No matter what your background is, your culture has life-changing meals, for me that meal is Moroccan Couscous. Since I was young, I have adored it and it has made me excited to eat a variety of Moroccan dishes. My taste buds have continuously craved every one of these meals especially by hearing their name.
Since my first eye-opening meal when I was a child, I have leaped at food that is new to me. I love all kinds of food however I have taken a specific admiration and obsession with African and Asian cuisine, which takes me to Japan.
I am truly lucky and grateful to have this life-changing opportunity to stay in Japan for three weeks. I will make the greatest possible advantage of it, which includes the Japanese cuisine! My first eye-opening meal was savored on the flight over. Naturally, I chose the standard Japanese meal rather than the western meal which is when I was pleasantly surprised. I was handed three different salads and a meat dish with rice and small cut-up fruits. Each packet of delight made me more excited to eat the Japanese cuisine on the ground than the last.
The second pleasant surprise was our first day’s breakfast. A healthy assortment of rice with seaweed, pulled beef with broccoli and mushrooms, a scrumptious salad of unknown origin and chicken and sausage. On the first day I had tried Onigiri for the first time, its softness melted in my mouth combining the sweet and fresh taste of salmon with a salty twist supported by a similar tasting item to Fuagra but much less intense.
With this I realized that Onigiri was going to be an essential on the trip, the next day. I tried an Onigiri only compiled of rice and salmon. Somehow the freshness of the salmon and the sweetness of the rice gave me great energy and joy. Onigiri was the first item in Tokyo that I had which made me truly realize how absolutely amazing every meal would be. As I continued to open my taste buds to whatever looked appetizing. I was increasingly shocked at the love, which is fused with the food, specifically the poke-bowl place next to our hotel. I bought a bowl with an assortment of shrimp, tuna, salmon, rice, and a mixture of fish unknown to me. Each raw fish
slice which I ate at a time overwhelmed my brain with flavor. It was all so unbelievably fresh and healthy tasting, Japan is making me realize that if I eat like this every day, I could easily adopt a pescatarian diet if desired.
Along with the way that the service at every restaurant is impeccable. Each worker is respectful and sends me off excited to eat what I just ordered or the next meal that I will have. Each day I am actively searching for different restaurants to try, all the ones I have tried in these three days are already favorites. Not only is Tokyo a city with delicious and addicting food but it Is also accommodating. Today the 27th is Eid Al Adha, I celebrate this day at home by eating mutton with my family. Since I wanted to try something exotic, I decided to go to a Halal Wagyu restaurant. The wagyu is fulsome, soft, and served with noodles in soup. I got this spicy dish which absolutely added to my joy and pleasure while consuming the meal.
I acknowledge that everyone sees food differently, various people love trying new things and others hate it. I have the pleasure of traveling with both kinds of people for these three weeks. I encourage everyone out there who enjoys some kind of food to get out of your comfort zone. Try new things even if you think you will not like it, restaurants do not line most streets for no reason.