【March】A "Meat and Vegetable Stir-fry Set Meal" That Rivals Any Gourmet Cuisine in the World
Whenever I come back from an overseas business trip, the first place I head to from the airport is always the same.
No matter how exhausted I am, or rather, precisely *because* I am exhausted, I go straight there, seeking that familiar taste. That doesn't change, no matter which country I've been to. Once the plane lands safely, I can barely contain myself; before going home or to the office, I walk through the doors of Yayoi Ken.
What I usually order is the meat and vegetable stir-fry set meal. The punchy saltiness that brings out the savory flavor of the meat works wonders on my worn-out body. It has a crisp crunch, yet it's cooked through perfectly, making it pleasantly tender. I love how the fat from the pork belly mixes in to make it faintly sweet, but if you add the accompanying spicy miso, the flavor tightens up instantly, and it really fires me up.
Yes, today I wanted to get fired up.
A colleague who joined the same year as me with outstanding planning skills. A junior colleague who is fluent not just in English, but in Chinese and German too. A senior colleague who isn't supposed to be good at languages, just like me, yet manages to slip right into the good graces of anyone from any country. While every other member of the project team has some area where they excel, I alone am mediocre. In everything, I am neither good nor bad. It was a business trip where, for the first time in a while, I was crushed by that realization about myself.
And that is exactly when I need the meat and vegetable stir-fry set meal.
Some might say, "Isn't it the same no matter where you eat it?" But I believe that a cook's true worth is demonstrated in a meat and vegetable stir-fry. I've seen for myself at home just how difficult it is to stir-fry it with just the right balance, without burning it or making it too watery.
And the tofu—that’s delicious too. The reason I always choose the set meal is that it comes with a small dish of chilled tofu. Since I’m especially hungry, I also change the miso soup to pork soup. From start to finish, it is the pinnacle of simple deliciousness that makes you slap your knee and say, "Yes, exactly! This is the taste!"
While I’m eating, I always remember my mother's face, because when I first ate Yayoi Ken's meat and vegetable stir-fry set meal, I felt like I understood the meaning of what my mother always used to say: "Become a person like a canola flower."
There was a field of canola flowers near my parents' house, and come spring, it would bloom in a riot of golden yellow. Compared to its splendor a single flower blooming alone is so dainty and modest that you might not see it at all. But that doesn't mean it lacks individuality; it remains one of the elite few that endured the winter cold, and when you eat it, each one has its own individual type of bitterness. They all may seem the same, but they are not the same. I think my mother was telling me to survive in society while embracing my own strength, and my own bitterness.
Am I overthinking it?
But that’s fine. No matter what anyone says, for me, Yayoi Ken is the best. It doesn't lose to any gourmet food in the world. Perhaps one of the reasons I go to Yayoi Ken is that it allows me to renew my resolve to do a job that makes people feel that way, too.
Text by Momo Tachibana / Illustration by Mog Hatak