One of my New Year’s resolutions was to clean my office. Six months later, files and books are still all over the place, sometimes lying on the floor. I miss seeing the surfaces of my cabinet and book shelves and desk. Even the top of the shredder is used as a place to hold documents. That’s bad enough, but unfortunately it has gone beyond the walls of my office. The TV room’s coffee table, TV cabinet and end tables are now covered with books, newspapers and magazines. I usually lose my cool much earlier, but somehow I’ve developed an immunity to this. If this goes on any longer, though, I will lose my mind.
Back in January, I bought three big plastic containers to sort my books into three categories: keep, out of the house and to the attic. During the winter, I was busy with work. Then taxes. Then, with gardening and other stuff. This “other stuff” came in when I declared in the spring, that I would work less this year. Then the vacuum was quickly filled with get-togethers, doctors’ appointments, cooking an extra dish for dinner and reading books. Reading is meditation for me. I can’t live without reading, but it makes my life very unproductive. I’m a very slow reader even in Japanese, my native tongue, let alone in English. So, I try very hard to not read anything during weekdays, but now there was nothing to stop me from reading. So, naturally, I ended up buying more books to read.
My tiny office became smaller as the stack of plastic containers claimed its space. This was proof that good intentions alone won’t get me anywhere. I realized (well, as if I didn’t know) I needed a practical task that I could do every day. So, I decided to spend first fifteen minutes of the morning sorting through books.
I started to tackle a row of books in one of the book cases. I saw some old books there. This should be easy. An hour later, I found myself reading the first book that I had picked up. I wanted to make sure I didn’t need it, and looked at its table of contents, and of course, found a chapter that could potentially change my life. Well, it didn’t, and no progress on the cleaning front was made either. If you do this for several days, you’d lose your confidence. Not only that, I became skeptical of myself. Maybe my intentions were wrong. I should never let them go. See, I can’t remember what I read before. If the books go, my brain will go with them.
But I was able to pull myself out of this downward spiral as I realized that being logical doesn’t always mean being reasonable. To move myself in the right direction, I came up with a compromise, and tried to assure myself saying “these books will be stored in the attic. You can access them when you need them.” But this conversation with myself scared me. Am I becoming a hoarder?
I was contemplating this while I was doing the dishes. Then, my son said,
“You know mom? I want to learn how to cook your dishes, so that I can cook them when I miss you.” My first thought was “Am I going to die?” I know I’m going to die eventually. Once you’re born, that’s where time takes you to. But this reminder of my mortality, although he didn’t mean it, jostled something inside me. Trying to distract myself from thinking about it, I asked, “Which one?”
“The father and child one.” That’s called “Oyako donburi” or “Oyako don” in Japanese. Oyako means a parent and a child, and donburi means a big bowl. There are many donburi dishes that are served with different toppings over rice. The topping of “Oyako don” has chicken and egg, hence, a parent and a child. This is a Japanese fast food and it has recently returned to my dinner table after a long hiatus. I cook it on a Tuesday because my family can’t sit together for dinner. My son at 6:00 pm before his Taekwondo lesson, my daughter at 7:30 after her volunteer work, my husband after work. I eat it with one of them.
My recipe is an American version. Mitsuba, a Japanese herb, is not readily available, so I use green onions or chives instead. I also use an unorthodox way of cooking it so that it’s even faster than the traditional way. But it’s not a delicate dish, and as long as you don’t overcook the egg, it’ll come out good. I cook shiitake mushrooms and onion together, then throw in chicken pieces. When it’s done, I’ll leave the kitchen. When someone is ready to eat, I scoop a part of the chicken mixture into a small frying pan and pour a beaten egg over it. Put a lid on it and it’ll be ready to serve in a minute. A good thing about this dish is that at least the last part is cooked fresh for each person.
I promised my son that I’d write down the recipe. Then, suddenly an image of my messy office appeared in my head. We say that today is the first day of the rest of your life. But today could also be last day of my life. Cornel West, an American philosopher and activist, always is in a black suit. That way, he says, that he could be put in a coffin “as is” when he dies. He lives with gusto and at the same time, ready to die. How exhilarating!
This has inspired me. Maybe I can do two things; one to make my life more pleasant and the other to leave something meaningful for my kids. I’ll organize my office, and create a recipe book for my children, so that they can comfort themselves by cooking some dishes that we enjoy as a family, when I live far away from them, or after my departure from this world to the next.
Well, this morning, I’ve spent first 60 minutes writing this essay. But I feel fine, as I have found a book to put in the “out of the house” container. It’s a Japanese book on how to live better 24 hours a day. That’s way beyond me, I’ve decided. I’ll just start with fifteen minutes a day.
Recipe: 親子丼（Oyako Donburi）Chicken and Eggs over Rice
Ingredients
Rice in 4 donburi丼 どんぶりor big bowls
Chicken thigh or breast cut into bite size. I usually use up to 2 small chicken breast halves.
1 1/3 cups of water
Handful of katsuobushi 鰹節 かつおぶし or bonito flakes. See the picture – this is a cheaper product that is good for making broth
2 Tablespoons of sugar
1/3 cups of soy sauce
1/3 cups of mirin
8 oz pack of shiitake mushrooms
A half of a big onion
4 eggs
1-2 scallions sliced
- Make dashi出汁 だしor broth. Boil water in a pot. Turn the heat off. Add かつおぶしor bonito flakes. Wait 5 min and strain.
- Meanwhile, cut onion in 1/8 width
- Add dashi, sugar, soy sauce and mirin in a pot over medium heat. Add onion and shiitake mushrooms when the sugar is melted. Bring it to a boil, and simmer for 2 min.
- Add chicken pieces, cook 2-3 min or until they’re cooked through.
- Add one-person portion of chicken-vegetable mixture in a small frying pan over medium-low heat. Sprinkle with some scallions.
- Add one beaten egg in the center of the mixture and then towards the edge of the pan, in a circular motion. Put a lid on the pan and cook for 20 seconds. Mix it lightly, cook for another 10 seconds or more to your preferred doneness. Try to avoid overcooking it.
- Pour it over rice in donburi丼どんぶり．
- Enjoy!