Rough Groove

Tampopo - Juzo Itami, 1986

First, observe the whole bowl.
Appreciate its gestalt.
Savor the aromas.
Jewels of fat glittering on the surface.
Shinachiku roots shining.
Seaweed slowly sinking.
Spring onions floating.
Concentrate on the three pork slices.
They play the key role, but stay modestly hidden.

First caress the surface… with the chopstick tips… to express affection.
Then poke the pork. Just touch it.

Caress it with the chopstick tips.Gently pick it up and dip it into the soup on the right of the bowl.
What’s important here is to…
apologize to the pork by saying…
“See you soon.”

Finally, start eating, the noodles first.
Oh, at this time… while slurping the noodles, look at the pork.
Eye it affectionately.

The old man bit some shinachiku root and chewed it awhile.Then he took some noodles. Still chewing noodles, he took some more shinachiku. Then he sipped some soup. Three times. He sat up… sighed, picked up one slice of pork as if making a major decision in life… and lightly tapped it on the side of the bowl.

To drain it. That’s all.

Ever since I have read Conrado de Quiros’ column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (more good times when I enjoyed and looked forward to this writer before he became obsessed with GMA this and GMA that), maybe almost a decade or more back during my college days when he wrote about the Japanese movie Tampopo. I have ever since looked up for this movie. Now, many years later, I have at last seen it and it was good and funny. You would never look at food, or a perfect bowl of Japanese ramen, like you use to before, again. A youthful Ken Watanabe, that Japanese in the movies Letters from Iwo Jima, Memoirs of a Geisha, to cite a few, can be seen here in the character Gun.