Kotatsu and Rice Cooker

It's almost ten years ago, I was befriended with a young girl from Texas or somewhere in the south of United States; I don't quite remember where. She was an assistant English teacher for elementary and junior high schools, hired by the local board of education for two years contract. She told me she had a big family in her hometown, with many brothers and sisters. Her mother was a Mexican immigrant, or USA had annexed the land where her ancestors were living. In which way, her mother spoke Hispanic language, and cooked good Mexican foods.
Just before she left Japan, she told me that she intended to bring two Japanese gadgets home. One was a kotatsu, a kind of heater, and the other was a rice cooker. She pointed out that those two were the best innovation that Japan has ever produced. I don't know she was right or not in her opinion, but sure, those are uniquely Japanese.

Kotatsu is a traditional Japanese warmer. Basically, it is a table for Japanese rooms, only a foot high. You will use those tables sitting on the floor, cross-legged or folding your knees. A kotatsu has a heater under the table and usually used with a spread of quilt to cover it. On top of the quilt, usually a board for a table top is set. You push your feet under the quilt to get warm while you eat, read, work on the table, or just relax lying down on the floor. It is a seasonal tradition of winter in Japan. Almost all Japanese family has a kotatsu or two, even three or four for each room. Cheapest one only costs about 40 dollars, while a heavy, decorative furniture styled kotatsu may cost more than 1,000 dollars. Anyone in Japan can afford a kotatsu suitable for his status. It is comfortable and economical, because it heats only your legs and hip, not whole room and uses much less electricity.
Originally, a kotatsu was a small pod to burn some piece of charcoal and a frame to cover it safe. You put it under your cover for the cold of the night. The essential of this kind of warmer is now an anka, a small electric heater to push into your bed, while the small frame of old kotatsu got bigger to became a table. When they started to use it for the daytime use, the top board was put, and kotatsu of today was established.
There is a variations to the kotatsu I mentioned above. It is a horigotatsu, a ditch style kotatsu. This may be more suitable and comfortable for the people in the USA. This kotatsu is installed in a tatami room with a three feet square dint. This way, you can sit down on the floor like you sit on a chair, instead of cross-legged. This style is often used in a traditional Japanese house with charcoal heater, instead of the electric heater.

Japanese rice cooker was developed after the Second World War. During the war, there were shortage of materials and fuel in Japan. People tried to cook with electricity, using simple heating wire in between the lights-out. But they never get a good result. The rice cooked with electricity never tasted good. Traditional way of cooking with firewoods or charcoal were the best.
But during the reconstruction era after the war, an engineer had set out to invent a good electric rice cooker. His story is long, almost a legend. I once read it a long time ago when I was a child. He had studied the way a good cook cooks his rice, and copied the process on the machine he was developing, and finally made a good cooker to set a standard for the rice cooker today.

The girl from Texas told me that they eat much rice over there, but never tasted a better dish of rice than the rice cooked in Japanese rice cooker. I think this was only a compliment, but she hoped the rice cooker she will bring home will help her mother a lot. This should be true.
I told her that "It is very nice of you to want to help your mother, but what the use of kotatsu in Texas, anyway? I've heard it is a very hot place, so you don't need a heater in your house, isn't it?"
Her answer was that it is indeed cold at night and morning, but not so cold that you need a heater. A kotatsu can warm you just right.

Ten years since then. I wonder what she is doing now. Does she still use her kotatsu and rice cooker? Elvia, if you see this, please write me an e-mail!

Japanese Foods

You can find Japanese foods at supermarket or at Japanese restraint. You know enough about sushi and tofu. But there are many Japanese foods you don't know.
Basically, there are three kinds of Japanese foods.

A. Traditional Japanese foods, such as sushi and tempra.

B. Foods that Japanese people refer as "Japanese Foods" (washoku in Japanese.)

C. What Japanese people actually eats, including junk foods.

For the people outside of Japan, "Japanese Foods" means above A. But above B, including A, is more Japanese. And there are foods typically Japanese but no one refers them as Japanese foods. For instance, dish of curry with rice is already a traditional Japanese taste, but it is referred as Indian foods in Japan. I am sure that Indian people will not find it Indian at all. Or, you can find many junk foods in the supermarket in Japan. There is a salty fried twisted crumbs taste like shrimps, called Kappa-Ebisen. This little snack was there forty years ago when I was a kid. These are foods in the category C.
You may be tired of hearing about the foods in the category A, and I don't know much about them. So, I will talk about other Japanese foods. I will also mention about the foods I cook. They may not be typical Japanese, but sure tastes good!