NOVEL THOUGHTS
………
ST. MARTIN’S, 1995
(available in paperback from St. Martin’s, 1996)
SENT OFF FROM college to his parents’ beach house in the small Japanese village of Tarumi to recover from tuberculosis in 1937, Stephen, the young Chinese protagonist of Gail Tsukiyama’s The Samurai’s Garden, finds the town devoid of young people. Most of the men have been drafted into the army. The young women shy away from any Chinese men. And so, isolated, Stephen turns to his art for comfort and to the taciturn caretaker of the beach house, Matsu, for companionship.
Stephen has limited though frightful memories of Matsu from childhood visits to the beach house. But as Matsu slowly nurses Stephen back to health, Matsu’s initial reticence yields. Matsu introduces Stephen to his friends Sachi, a leper living in a mountain village, and Kenzo, Sachi’s former boyfriend.
Through these characters, The Samurai’s Garden explores the many faces of beauty. Sachi’s deformed appearance masks an irrepressible inner kindness. Her rock garden ripples with a simple, quiet elegance. “Beauty can be found in most places,” Matsu says, and Stephen’s experience in Tarumi reveals this, along with more painful truths about loyalty and prejudice.
Food first begins to melt the frosty relationship between the newly arrived Stephen and his host, Matsu. Although language and personality keep the two from talking much, Matsu extends a welcome by preparing a breakfast of rice with pickled vegetables and miso soup on Stephen’s first morning in Tarumi. Although the men exchange only six words over breakfast, later in the day Stephen recalls the breakfast: “Matsu was certainly a good cook, even if he wasn’t much of a talker.”
Later, Matsu uses a tray of food as a vehicle to convey approval. He interrupts Stephen’s painting with a tray of “noodles sprinkled with green onions and thin slices of fish, a rice cake, and tea.” After slurping his noodles, Stephen notices another box containing several beautiful paintbrushes that once belonged to Stephen’s grandfather. Matsu’s offering, brought in subtly on a tray of food, is a sign of approval of Stephen’s beloved pastime, and brings the two closer.
Matsu and Sachi also nurture each other with food. After Sachi’s attempt to take her life, Matsu brings her food and tea. “Even though the tea tasted cold and bitter, I have never been more grateful for anything in my life. He also brought along some rice cakes and a package of dry seaweed which I ate hungrily,” says Sachi. In turn, many years later, Sachi tries to please Matsu with food. With few options to openly enjoy their relationship, their moments of pleasure often take place in Sachi’s hut in the mountain village, where Matsu and Stephen visit her. After serving Matsu marinated eel, tofu, and rice, “she stood quietly to one side, and watched him take his first mouthful, chew, then nod his head approvingly as her lips curved upward just slightly into a smile.”
Of the many dishes peppering the pages of The Samurai’s Garden, noodles are a staple of the Japanese diet. Popular lunch spots, Japanese noodle houses serve both soba, thin brown noodles made from buckwheat flour, and udon, thick, round wheat noodles. Our recipe calls for udon, as Matsu prepares for Stephen, but you can substitute soba if desired.
The Japanese consider the noisy slurping of noodles to be a sign of gastronomic satisfaction. Let members of your book club fill small bowls with noodles and toppings. Then offer chopsticks, so they can dip small portions of noodles into the sauce and slurp as loudly as they please.
NOTE: Udon noodles are available either dried or precooked and refrigerated. Either will work fine. Dashi is a soup stock made with dried bonito tuna flakes, used widely in Japanese cooking. Dashi, mirin, udon noodles, nori, and wasabi paste can be purchased online or at a specialty grocer.
For the sauce 2 cups dashi ¾ cup soy sauce 6 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine) 1½ teaspoons sugar |
For the noodles 2½ pounds precooked udon noodles, or 2 10-ounce packages dried udon noodles |
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½ pound silken (soft) tofu 2 sheets nori (seaweed sheets) ½ cup chopped scallions 1 tablespoon wasabi paste |
To make the sauce: Combine the dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to combine, and remove from heat. Let the mixture cool. If making ahead of time, refrigerate until needed. Sauce may be served cool or at room temperature.
To make the noodles: If using dried noodles, prepare according to package directions. For precooked noodles, cook in boiling water for 1½ minutes. Drain udon well under cold running water, then place in a bowl filled with ice water for a few minutes. Drain again before serving.
To make the garnishes: Slice the tofu into ½-inch slabs and place between paper towels for 10 minutes to remove excess moisture. Cut into ½-inch cubes and keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Toast the nori briefly over an open flame until it flakes apart easily. Do not let it blacken. If no gas flame is available, toast in a toaster oven for a few seconds or in a dry skillet. Crumble into small pieces.
Fill individual bowls with udon and serve accompanied by chopsticks and bowls of dipping sauce. Arrange tofu, nori, scallions, and wasabi on a plate or in small bowls and serve with the noodles.
Yield: 10 to 12 servings
NOVEL THOUGHTS
When Debby Saltzman and her fellow book club members meet in Westborough, Massachusetts, there is always a feast for the senses. “We use food, scenery, costumes from the book—whatever it takes to transport us to the time and place of the book we’re reading,” says Saltzman.
Hostess Marjorie Ashton went to great lengths to prepare her house for the group’s discussion of The Samurai’s Garden, a book the group highly recommends. To simulate the book’s Japanese setting, she moved furniture out of her living room, set up a large, low table on cinder blocks, and decorated the table with straw mats and paper lanterns. She served Japanese food from a local restaurant, including sushi, miso soup, and Japanese beer.
The group appreciated the unusual subject matter of The Samurai’s Garden. They admired Sachi, “a beautiful person who has leprosy,” and marveled at Matsu’s devotion to her. “Taking care of Sachi the way Matsu did shows an unbelievable amount of compassion,” says Saltzman. “We liked the emotion of this book.” They felt Gail Tsukiyama established a strong sense of place in the book, especially in Sachi’s garden, where “the sense of peacefulness that the author created was very satisfying.” Finally, the group enjoyed the novelty of a book about a Chinese man living in Japan during the war. “We just appreciated the exotic nature of this book,” says Saltzman.
More Food for Thought
The Sage Sisters of Cody, Wyoming, enjoyed home-cooked Chinese food—fried wontons, beef with green onions, fried egg rolls, white rice, stir-fried broccoli with egg, and fortune cookies—for their discussion of The Samurai’s Garden. “I don’t know how to cook Japanese food,” explains Liz Campbell, who hosted the meeting, “so I cooked my own version of some Chinese dishes,” a fitting tribute to the protagonist’s Chinese heritage. “The smells really transported us. Eating the meal was a fun way to end the evening,” says Campbell.