This week saw us, both students at universities in Japan, make ‘university potato’ or daigaku imo. An English ‘university potato’, if there were such a thing, would surely be some sodden lump of reconstituted Smash drowning in a bog of gloopy gravy. Here it is a caramelized fried sweet potato sprinkled with sesame seeds, eaten as oyatsu afternoon snack. I must admit that in all my time at universities here I have not once had this snack in any of the canteens (there are all sorts of tempting other options), and it seems to be now a sort of retro-nostalgic delicacy than fodder for impoverished students. Which is a shame really, since like the uni cliché that is beans on toast, daigaku imo is nutritious, cheap and easy to make.
Having said that, my attempt at deep-frying chunks of the long maroon potato and coating them in a sugar-water caramel resulted in something that according to my husband was “oishii (delicious), but not exactly like daigaku imo.” Traumatised by the oil disaster that my kitchen became after Week 4’s pumpkin korokke, I tried to make do without using another pan full of oil, thus bathing the potato bits only up to their ankles, as it were. This resulted in a slightly healthier but perhaps less authentic version.
The origins of the dish, I was excited to find, are said by some to be in the Takadanobaba area near Waseda University. Since I moved to Tokyo I have been living at various places in close orbit to Takadanobaba station, and it is currently our next stop on the Metro. I should have bought my satsuma imo (sweet potato) there for a bit of historical serendipity, but instead went one station in the other direction to Nakano Broadway.
This aged shopping centre is a true gem, encapsulating under one roof much of the diversity to be found in Japanese society. It has become a haven for otaku, passionate fans of anything from war medals to coins to toys from gachapon vending machines to manga and anime and all their related paraphernalia. I actually feel quite ill when faced with the overpowering mass of endless banks of these trinkets, each of which will mean something to someone. But next to these there are old massage parlours, hairdressers frozen in time, cheap clothes shops, tiny restaurants (we lunched here for the 2nd time) and shops selling astronomically priced watches and brand bags. In the basement is a collection of food markets where I bought my ‘tater, also the location of the famed seven layer soft-cream cones.
We ate my daigaku imo from the beautiful dishes that were a wedding present from the other Miss Mugwort in Kyoto! They are usually eaten alone, but I couldn’t resist adding some vanilla ice-cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon to those piping hot crunchy sweet potatoes. To wash it down we had puerh tea (with an appropriately earthy flavour) brewed and served in our tea set in a basket from Hong Kong. Probably not how they’d be eating in Takadanobaba all those years ago, but, like Nakano Broadway where this particular spud was from, it was a pleasing mix.
No comments:
Post a Comment