Cook the local flavors once more

Bubu-zuke (ochazuke from a monaka wafer)

From: An ordinary morning in a hundred-year-old Kyoto townhouse

Hot water going over a plum-blossom-shaped monaka wafer on rice

In Kyoto, ochazuke is called bubu-zuke. The story that being offered bubu-zuke means "it's time you went home" is widely known; the linguist Junichi Ono writes that it is not sarcasm but a way of saying something hard to say indirectly, to avoid friction, and that Japanese has similar expressions beyond Kyoto. This time I ended my day in Kyoto with a plum-blossom-shaped monaka wafer that opens when hot water is poured over it.

Ingredients

Cooked rice
A plum-blossom-shaped ochazuke monaka wafer
Hot water

How I made it

Put rice in a bowl
Set the plum-blossom-shaped wafer on top
Pour hot water from the kettle over it and wait for the shell to soften

Sources: president.jp

This moment in the journey

Would you care for some bubu-zuke?

To end the day in Kyoto. I set a red-painted rice bowl in front of the white-tiled okudosan, the old stove, and boiled water in the iron kettle. In the tatami room, a paper lamp with the silhouette of a maiko was lit.

Rice into the bowl, then a plum-blossom-shaped monaka wafer on top, and hot water from the kettle over it. The wafer shell softened and opened, and rice crackers and other bits floated out. Would you care for some bubu-zuke?

In Kyoto, ochazuke, rice with tea or broth poured over it, is called bubu-zuke. Being offered it, they say, means "it's time you went home." Whether that is true, I can't say. In my case, I would take the words at face value and gratefully eat. Saying things gently and indirectly rather than head-on: I feel a kind of consideration in that. Sitting on a red flowered cushion, I slurped it down with a beer.

Watch this scene on YouTube4:44

Read this scene in the full journey