赤い食べ物は邪気を祓う
昔から小正月（１月１５日）に小豆粥を食べる習慣があったことを思い出して、ネットで調べて小豆粥を作ってみました。小豆のような赤い食べ物は邪気を祓うという中国の古い風習に由来しているのだそうです。私の家では小豆粥にお餅が入っていた記憶があります。赤飯もいいですが小豆粥も美味しいものだと改めて思いました。
年末から年始にかけての大雪もずいぶん溶けたところにまた雪が少し積もりましたが、今回はそれほどでもなくホッとしました。雪の降るなかカフェを開けておくとポツリとお客様が入ってこられます。ストーブをそばにおいて暖を取ってもらっている間、注文してくださったぜんざいの白玉を大急ぎで作って、美味しい塩昆布と一緒にお出しします。それからカウンター越しにおしゃべりが始まります。閉めなくてよかったとしみじみ思います。
I remember that Japanese people had been eating Azuki (red beans) porridge on 15th of January, although most people rarely do nowadays. I made it following the recipe from the net. According to net info, it is from an old Chinese custom to get rid of evil by eating red food like Azuki. When I was a child, my mom (or grandmother) put mochi (rice cake) in the porridge, too. Today I recognized that Azuki porridge is very good as well as red rice (steamed rice with red beans) which I like.
We had heavy snow from the end of the year to the beginning of the year and much of it has melted. Two days ago, it was snowy again but this time it didn’t accumulate that much. I opened the cafe expecting no customers on that snowy day, but a customer came in. Offering a kerosine stove beside the customer, I prepared Zenzai (a sweet red bean soup) and served it with very nice salted kelp. Then started small talk. I really thought that it was good that I didn’t close the cafe and had a cozy time.
2022/1/15
