#いまあなたに伝えたいこと(32) ー　(英語版) – Passing Down Food Culture: From My Son to My Grandchildren

My husband, my son, and I only lived together until he was 13 years old. He went to study in New Zealand at that age. Because of this, we hardly remember what kind of meals we had or whether our diet was mainly Japanese.

He spent his middle and high school years in a boys’ dormitory, and when he became a university student, he often bought rice balls to eat. I didn’t really know what kind of food he liked. I do remember, though, that when we visited New Zealand, he took us to restaurants and, while eating Western food with a fork and knife, taught us how to eat properly and about table manners.

After my son got married and settled into his own home, and we began visiting, I gradually got a glimpse of their eating habits. To my surprise, he cooked rice every day in a rice cooker and kept Japanese ingredients like pickled plums (umeboshi), furikake, and nori on hand to eat.

When children were born, our eldest (now seven) started eating rice prepared by my son with pickled plums after finishing baby food. The second, a girl (now five), grew up the same way. Both children’s favorite foods became rice with umeboshi, furikake, and other Japanese ingredients, influenced by their father. Of course, their mother also had a big influence, and they love New Zealand food as well.

It is remarkable how the food culture my son absorbed by age 13 seems to have been deeply ingrained in him. And yet, children with completely different New Zealand heritage watch their father eat, try it, and come to like it.

When my two grandchildren are hungry, they microwave a portion of frozen rice for two minutes and eat it with umeboshi or furikake.

Watching this, I feel a very curious and wonderful sense of the continuity of culture as a grandmother.

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