Part 4: Bon Odori
The Bon festival in Japanese Buddhism is an occasion commemorating ancestors. It is a yearly festival that generally involves family reunion and Bon Odori, or the "Bon Dance." We were told about about the festival by one of the hosts at Etta's, with whom I was discussing the merits of soba noodles (which had accompanied my seared albacore tuna - yum!) Discussing soba turned into an exploration of cold Japanese noodles of all varieties and culminated with an exhortation to attend the Bon Odori at the Seattle Buddhist Temple the following day, at which many such noodle varieties could be sampled. So, what else, but off we went, after going to Bite of Seattle first! Bon Odori, according to wikipedia, is the traditional community dance done during the Bon festival. It is large - in this case several rings of people filling two blocks of street in front of the Buddhist temple.
And since all that dancing works up quite the appetite, there are many varieties of food on offer. We went straight for the somen noodles and the first surprise was that they were ice cold. Thin noodles served in a brown bonito/miso broth with some scallions and a little chili powder and soy sauce, and all cold. As such, it was just about the perfect refreshing, yet filling, food for a hot, sunny day - a little sweet and a little salty at the same time, and it stayed cold until the last bite. Onto the list of things to try making, along with soba.Then we discovered the grill around back of the temple and had yaki onigiri - grilled teriyaki rice balls. Sticky and sweet and crunchy, humming with ginger and soy and golden brown. Take a look - even the picture looks good enough to eat.
A few Japanese restaurants make them and I can't think of any off the top of my head so I guess you'll just have to go exploring. As if a giant ball of rice on top of the heap of somen weren't enough, I had to try the shaved ice with sweet red beans and sweetened condensed milk in addition to the usual fruity syrups. The substance added by the milk makes the whole thing not quite so syrupy and sickly-sweet as were it just ice and fruity syrup and the beans add surprising little variations of texture and taste - a little salty, too - that complement the sweet, fruity crunchiness of the rest of the pile of ice shavings. It was a really good thing to eat while watching a taiko drumming performance.
[Part 5: The Lavender Festival >> ]
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