Won't Miss #35 - not having a proper oven (reflection)

My "old" oven in Tokyo when it was brand new. I gave it to a student when I left and now she uses it.

Since coming back to the U.S., I have tried not to take the advantages that I have living here for granted, but this one, having a "proper" oven, is one that I've so eased into that I'd forgotten that things were once quite different. You'd think that every time I make a big clay pot chicken that wouldn't fit in my Japanese oven that I'd remember what I once couldn't manage. But, no. Having two racks upon which to bake? I've totally taken that for granted already.

One of the values of reflecting back on my old posts is that I can consider whether I feel the way I thought I'd feel after I was no longer living in Japan, but this is one that makes me appreciate what I have now a bit more. Being able to bake essentially without limits is something I really do appreciate and I truly do not miss my tiny oven in Japan.

Will Miss #428 - impetus to develop culinary skills

A lot of people think that a foreigner wanting to eat foods from home is a tacit rejection of Japanese cuisine. It's not. You can enjoy all of the lovely food around you in Japan as an addition to what you knew and loved back home. It doesn't have to be a wholesale replacement one way or another. That being said, you really can't easily get things here that you can back home, like whole wheat bread. If you can get them, they're often much more expensive or offered in a way which suits Japanese tastes and are not quite "right". There are a lot of things I have learned to do and cook as a result of the costs or limits placed on me by living in Japan. Because of the high cost of cottage cheese, for instance, I've learned to make it myself and that in turn has helped me learn to make paneer (Indian cheese) as well. I've also experimented and developed many recipes that I almost certainly would have not done had I remained back home where I could easily get familiar foods.

I'll miss the way in which life in Japan has encouraged me to learn to cook or prepare things I would simply have picked up pre-made in a store back home.

Won't Miss #419 - only 2 burners

A lot of short-timers in Japan never really do much in the way of cooking. For them, a toaster oven and one lonely gas burner is more than enough to sustain them between "konbini" (convenience store) sandwiches and rice balls (onigiri) and dinners of UFO yakisoba and instant ramen. For me, as someone who cooks and cooks a lot, having a mere 2 burners on a gas table requires a lot of messing about to get the job done. It's not even about complex meals, but if you want to cook a vegetable, a starch and a main meat or fish dish, that's a three-burner deal right there. I'm not talking about multi-course haute cuisine, but just a basic meal with different components. Though I've become fairly good at juggling, it gets pretty tiresome and troublesome at times.

Some Japanese people have proper stoves (with 3 or 4 burners) in their homes, but most apartment dwellers are stuck with one or two burners. I won't miss the limits on meal preparation that have been a part of my life in Tokyo.

Will Miss #281 - cooking terms without pretense

I like to cook, and I follow several cooking blogs and a few forums. There is something that drives me crazy and that is people who use Japanese words instead of perfectly reasonable English equivalents because they're trying to sound like they know something other people don't. They're the types who like to toss around words like "umami" when they could say "savory" or "meaty" or who say even dumber things like "panko breadcrumbs" (which, incidentally, means "breadcrumbs breadcrumbs") instead of "Japanese breadcrumbs".* I don't have a pet peeve about Japanese words that are used when there is a lack of an adequate English equivalent, e.g. "sushi","miso". I only get irked when I sense that people are are going out of their way show off their knowledge about food by tossing in Japanese terms unnecessarily.

I'll miss hearing Japanese cooking terms because that's the language being spoken rather than because someone is trying to show off their culinary sophistication.

*When participating in such (English language) forums or commenting on web sites, I never use Japanese words when serviceable English is possible.

Won't Miss #188 - expensive, hard to find tortillas

Ten small (6 in./15 cm.) tortillas for $5.33 (472 yen).

I like to make Mexican or Tex-Mex food, and have actually made my own tortillas on occasion. Unfortunately, it's a labor-intensive, time-consuming process rolling them out and cooking them one at a time. I can spend an hour making them or spend a pretty penny buying them. What is more, I can only get them in the freezer section at one shop (that carries imports) in my neighborhood or at Costco, where I have to buy enough to feed an army. You'd think that the increasing presence of "wrap" sandwiches at convenience stores would mean that Japanese people were eating them more regularly and therefore they might start incorporating them into their own cuisine, but it would appear not.

I won't miss not having access to tortillas and paying a lot for the ones I can find.

Will Miss #132 - response to peanut butter cookies

Every Christmas since buying an oven, I have made copious amounts of peanut butter cookies for my coworkers, students, and my husband's students. They are a huge hit with everyone because they are so unusual as a cookie offering in Japan (and because they are high fat and not overly sweet, which suits Japanese tastes). Back home, they're seen as pretty mundane, but they're always received with great enthusiasm here and it is gratifying to have such a positive response to something I am proficient at making.

I'll miss the grateful and energetic responses I get to something which is treated as common back home.

Will Miss #101 - smell of charcoal grilling

About a three-minute walk from my apartment, there's a dingy little restaurant which uses buckets of red hot coals to cook its food. In the evening, when they are in full service mode, these buckets are sitting outside full of glowing coals and the air is filled with the heavenly scent of grilled food which is made with them. The smell is distinctive and extremely enticing.

I'll miss the lovely scent of this old-fashioned cooking style and having a chance to encounter it often.