The 132nd Installment
Meals during the Period of Voluntary Self-restraint

by Daisuke Kasai,
Assistant Professor

Recently, I have been going out much less and spending a lot more time in the kitchen. Isn't food one of the pleasures during this period of voluntary self-restraint?　I just love delicious food, so my daily meals and snacks are blissful, and has nothing to do with these times.

Since I have always like to make things, cooking also became one of my hobbies before I even realized it. After I started working, I often make my own lunch for health and to save money. I enjoy my time making lunch boxes while trying to find the right nutritional balance and arranging the food so that it looks delicious. It is said that having at least three colors makes lunch boxes look good. When I actually make my own, I think they should have at least three colors, or ideally five to make them look spectacular and tasty. However, increasing the number of colors means more side dishes, which takes that much more time. That is why they often turn out brown (the fourth from the left in the upper row in Photo 1: potsticker lunch box). I personally do not think that there is anything wrong about brown food, but it may look like pretty basic.

Photo 1: Homemade lunch boxes (30 varieties Photographed by Daisuke Kasai)

The food that you once enjoyed when self-restraint began will soon become boring as time goes on. This is more so the case when you have made the same dishes too many times. So I bought a new low-temperature cooker to spice things up. It is something I have been wanting to buy for a long time, so I decided this was the time to get it. A low-temperature cooker is a cooking appliance that maintains the water at a constant hot temperature for a specified time by attaching it to a special container or pot. Meat, fish, and vegetables become very tender and moist by cooking them over a long period of time. However, it really takes time. Depending on the ingredients you are cooking, one to three hours is normal, and longer recipes can take all night. Nowadays, it is quite the opposite, given that you can get food anywhere cheaply, easily, right away, consistently and deliciously, without dirtying the kitchen. However, it seems that I can enjoy the fact that it takes time and hassle, there are more dishes to wash, and more money for cooking utensils and ingredients.

Once I got hooked on cooking, I wanted to explore everything about it, so after purchasing the low-temperature cooker, I continued to experiment with different ingredients, water temperatures, and cooking times every day. Sometimes I used the same ingredients for a few days to determine the tastiest conditions while slightly adjusting the water temperature and cooking time. I have had many such failures and successes, but one result of this was cooking roast beef and chicken breast ham at New Year’s dishes in 2021. (Photo-2). I am very proud of myself because it turned out so well.

Photo-2: Traditional Japanese New Year’s osechi dishes in 2021 (Photographed by Daisuke Kasai)

The restrictions on outings has given me many opportunities to get a glimpse of my inner self, and I am once again growing to accept the things I am good at. I think that if everyone stays in the same space, they will become very stressed and lose their energy in before they know it. Under such circumstances, if you can find something fun in such limited conditions, you might be able to live a healthy life every day. Now I am going to spend a few more hours of fun practicing for when I can enjoy my specialties with family and friends again.