Food!
In my third year at university, I changed my major from Architecture to Food Technology. I went to the Agricultural department office, asked if there was any professor who was doing any research on food, and made an appointment to meet him.
This was how I met Prof. Sagara.
He was carrying out research on "Food KANSEI", which tries to identify the factors behind what we think is "tasty" by using statistical methods.This was exactly what I was interested in.
One of the factors that strongly influences the palatability (=tastiness) of food is the texture. This is easily understood; we all like custard puddings for their smooth mouthfeel or potato chips for their crunchiness. My research started with the question, "What is behind the different textures of bread? How can we measure it?". Although my research has expanded a lot from the original question, I still regard it as an important theme.
Besides my research, I like cooking and baking and ofcourse, eating. I think that food is something that makes everyone happy. This is saying something in a world where we have lots of leisures to please us and yet we are constantly under stress. I believe that if spent a little more of our time on food, thinking about it, making it, or just eating it, we would have a more comfortable life.
Four years ago, some members of my laboratory including myself started a "luxurious lunch project". As its name suggests, the aim of this project is to go to restaurants whose rank (and price) is higher than places we would normally go, and to experience the food and atmosphere there. Luckily, Tokyo is one of the highest ranking cities in the world regarding food, and there is a whole range of prestigious restaurants. We chose "lunch" due our budgets, because even so-called "top class" restaurants offer affordable lunches.
At that time, a woman who had worked at a large food company as a product developer was enrolling in our laboratory as an adult doctoral student. We asked her to be our instuctor and to introduce us to her repertoire of restaurants in Tokyo. Her wealth of experience with chefs and people in the food industry, and her exceptional interest in food made her a superb instructor.
Since then, we have had lunch at over twenty restaurants in Tokyo, ranging from traditional French cuisine to Japanese restaurants specializing in eel. As this project is "part research", I always take photographs of all the dishes and make a powerpoint presentation file after the visit. I would like to share some of our experiences here.
My road bike
I started riding a sports bike because I thought it would shorten my commute to NFRI, which was about 8km
at that time.
I never thought I would come to enjoy cycling in itself.
Now, more than 10 people around me ride a sports bike, and we sometimes go on long-distance rides in the weekends, often longer than 100 km. Tsukuba is a great place for cycling, with Mt. Tsukuba (going uphill is tiring, but for some reason, very satisfying) and the winding roads beyond. Often, we go with some purpose, for example, to go see a festival in a small town or visit a restaurant in the countryside.
Although I do not intend to go too deep into this hobby, since it can involve spending more and more money for better gear, I think that it is a great way to feel each season and also to get to know many people.
Note: for people who have noticed, I have changed the photograph here. The bicycle on the right is my second bike, with deep rimmed wheels (aerodynamically designed!) and black/pink coloring.
My childhood overseas and food
I was born in Nepal, and lived in SriLanka, Ethiopia and Switzerland before coming to live in Japan at the age of 12. Living in so called "developing" countries may have affected me in many ways, not least, about the way I think about food.
My mother tried to make us (my two younger sisters and myself) accustomed to Japanese food, so she cooked rice and made Japanese food made from handmade miso and tofu if soybeans were available. I also remember eating the local meals in each country, for example, spring hoppers in SriLanka, and injera in Ethiopia. Eggs were a luxury in Ethiopia, and sugar was only sold to foreigners. Even as a child, I think I felt that food was something that didn't come so easily.
Switzerland was much wealthier than the former countries, and since we lived on the border between Switzerland and France, we often went to the French side to buy cheap and good food. The morning market which opened on weekends sold fresh seafood such as tuna and octopus. These were brought back home and cut to eat as sashimi or quickly boiled. I remember sticking behind my mother to get a bite of these delicacies before they were stored in the refrigerator. Although food was plenty and we enjoyed the rich variety of fruit, dairy products and meat, I still had an yearning towards the Japanese food which a knew from books, typical mountain vegetables, Japanese herbs, natto, Kewpie mayonnaise and Kagome ketchup. This yearning towards food may be one reason I still get excited when I have a plate in front of me.