Norwegian Rice

It worked! I successfully prepared Aunt Bonnie’s Norwegian rice recipe using Japanese rice. Roo has a bad cold and yesterday he announced that he wanted to stay indoors and have a “lazy day”. A perfect opportunity to prepare Norwegian rice since it requires a commitment of standing close to the stove for a few hours to stir to prevent scorching. I reserve this dish as something special for the holidays and we all love it! Ryan ate it for breakfast today and asked if I have the ingredients to make more. The ingredients aren’t the tough part. The three to four hour window of opportunity is the challenge. The rice is simmered in butter and evaporated milk with ½ gallon (or 1.9L) of whole milk added gradually. Sugar and cinnamon provide flavor. Don’t be fooled by the apparent simplicity of the ingredients. The end result is a creamy delight! I’m not sure if this dish resembles any foods prepared in modern day Norway. I do know it’s a classic on the family reunion buffet table for Minnesotans proud of their Norwegian heritage. And, cooked in milk is the only way we ate rice growing up with the exception of Minute Rice (yuck!) or Rice a Roni (double yuck!). Sure, the way the Japanese prepare their rice is much healthier, but once a year our family will indulge and eat Norwegian rice.

The simmering.

Hot Water Bottles

Remember hot water bottles? When I was small it surfaced at our home in the winter about the time the flu was making it’s rounds. Ours was off white, made of rubber, and I faintly remember something to do with a pig. I have no idea what happened to it, but I imagine it fell out of favor when the electric heating pad came on the scene. Hence, my surprise when I stumbled on the extensive collection of hot water bottles at Tokyu Hands. Options on the left, on the right, in front, and behind the row in front. Some plain, some cute, but all cuddly. I opted for the original fashy® with the 100% cotton knit washable cover. Now, in the last few days as Roo’s battling the fever and chills he’s requesting “the hot bottle”. I wonder, does it take less energy to boil a pot of water or to run an electric heating pad? Who knows, maybe Americans will resurrect the hot water bottle as a way to “go green”. Obviously they haven’t fallen from favor in Japan.

Book Review: Interpreter of Maladies

This is a collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, a London-born, American-raised daughter of Bengali India Immigrants. Each story features persons of Indian heritage and provides a glimpse into the culture. There is depth but a fair amount of contemplation is necessary to extract. While the writing is beautiful, I found all but one of the stories to be sad. Hence, it was at times difficult to go on and if this was not a selected reading for a book club, it’s likely I would have stopped. Many of the characters lack radiance or joy. This contradicts my impression of the Indians I have come to know, and for me, this was a disconnect. The collection did win a Pulitzer Prize.

Kanji of the Year

Annually the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation solicits votes for the kanji of the year. The triumphant character this year is pronounced hen and has no association to poultry. Kanji characters have more than one meaning and hen represents change or strange. One interpretation might be that when something changes, at first it seems strange. 2008 has been a year of odd change including the deterioration of the New York Stock Exchange and the Nikkei, the revolving door of the Japanese Prime Mister post, the advancement of global warming and of course, the historic election of Barak Obama. In addition, the Japanese received a whopping four nobel prizes and won more medals at the Olympics than expected. A year of bad and good or yin and yang to aid humanity towards a balanced life!

Chief priest Seihan Mori at Kyoto's Kiyomizudera temple writing the kanji of the year.
Photo credit: JUN UEDA, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

End of Term

Today was the end of the school term and Tsubasa’s last day at preschool. Next term he will be attending a school closer to his new home in Tokyo, about one hour from the area where we live. Last night when I was explaining this to Roo he looked very sad and asked “when will I get to go to a new school near my home in Minneapolis?”. A tough question. On the way home from school he asked “but will Tsubasa still be in Japan?”. I explained yes, and that we will visit Tsubasa at his new home for a play date. We’ll just have to ride the train and have his mommy pick us up at the station. It’s a legitimate question. He’s had classmates leave to return to India, UK, Sweden, and Australia, and at the end of January we’ll loose our dear upstairs neighbors and their young daughters. They are returning to Germany. Tough transitions but an inevitable part of the expatriate experience.

Roo & Tsubasa on a field trip wearing spy glasses.

Ryan's birthday

Yesterday was Ryan’s 35th birthday. In the morning he opened his present (a book about sake) and went to work. In the evening we met at Temple University to attend a lecture and after came home to enjoy cheesecake and zinfandel with friends. The lecture we attended was titled “How Obama won the election” and was given by corporate executive Skipp Orr who worked on the campaign as part of the foreign policy team. He is the former president of Boeing Japan and now the chairman of the Panasonic Foundation and was a major fundraiser in the campaign. His lecture was divided into two main talking points. First, showing the electoral results by state for key elections in the last century that demonstrates the unique element in American politics that power swings. This is not the case in Japan. Second, based on his opinion, he detailed the top ten factors that positively impacted the results of the Obama campaign. While all points were insightful, one of the most interesting pertained to Obama’s win in Iowa. Before Iowa, the African American community had not yet solidified support for Obama. Iowa is a state with a mostly white population. Winning Iowa proved legitimacy to the African American voters that he is able to reach across race lines. After Iowa, the support from the African American community increased. He also talked about the widespread fundraising efforts and how around the world Americans were energized. In fact, he ran a call center from Kamakura Japan. A true grass roots effort that accomplished unprecedented fundraising success. He concluded by explaining that this historical event has inspired a movement of change. As an example, within the past month the Green party, one of Germany's main political parties, has elected the son of Turkish immigrants to its top political post, the first time any party in Germany has chosen a leader with an immigrant background.

Machiko Ozawa

Today I attended a CWAJ luncheon which included a recital by violinist Machiko Ozawa, accompanied by Li-Ling Wang on the cello. She played classical pieces by Bach, Handel and Gershwin as well as her own compositions that are modern and improvisational. Her duet album with Justin Hines titled Vertical Voyage is available on iTunes. I enjoyed her music and found her sound energizing and devoid of the unwelcome tension I often feel when listening to classical music. If you’d like to add freshness to your musical collection, this would be a good choice. For a fun sample of her sound visit this LINK and under the play list select Havana Murder Mystery.

At the luncheon I was sitting next to a Japanese woman that is likely from the generation before my dad. I found her interesting. In conversation it became obvious that she’s lived a full life. By far, she knew more about Minnesota than any foreign person I’ve met. She knew of Macalaster College and the fact that many people with Scandinavian heritage who eat herring reside there. She could tell my last name was Norwegian. She mentioned Lake Minnetonka and knew the Dakota meaning “Big Waters”. She knew that 3M and Cargill are headquartered there. I never meet people that know of Cargill (where I worked for 13 years), let alone bring it up in conversation! The most revealing comment she made that confirms her knowledge of the state was about how much coffee people drink. “They sip it all day long”! This proves she definitely understands Minnesota!

Photo of the Day: Roo enjoying a chocolate donut.