Japanese Comfort Food

Haruki Murakami's characters are the kind of Japanese who always drink coffee, never tea, and who have scrambled eggs, juice, and toast for breakfast. Here are two incidental references to the quick snacks they make for themselves at home, from Dance Dance Dance (ISBN 0099448769):

Scallions tossed with salt-plum. Wakame seaweed and shrimp vinaigrette. Wasabi preserves and grated daikon with sliced fish mousse. Slivered potatoes in olive oil and garlic with minced salami. Homemade cucumber pickles. Yesterday's hijiki seaweed plus tofu garnished with heaps of ginger. (p. 286)


I boiled water for tea, tossed together some crumbled nori and salt-plum and wasabi horseradish, topped two bowls of rice with the mixture, and poured tea over each. O-chazuke. Yum. (p. 292)