Shige Essay n.49 - Beans -
Here it is the translation of the latest Shige's essay ^^
This time he let us know how much he hates beans and how much he loves coffee :D
I can understand so well his blabbing about coffee because I'm an addicted too =.=
Enjoy!
AOI HITORIGOTO 49 - BEANS
By Kato Shigeaki
The beans I love are probably only two. Soy and coffee.
Basically, "I think I hate beans". Maybe I wrote there something like this previously but when I have to give my definition of things I hate I always talk about sweet things, as delegate for them I always do the example of Anko. Totally a bean. Atsuki. That is my only natural enemy. However, there are also other beans that "I think I hate". For example, broad beans or french beans. Sometimes I like them too but basically "I think I hate" them. I can't explain it well but it's just like that.
Instead there are some beans that, depending on the cooking, show a certain potential. The soy. For example, from the seasoning of Soy sauce and Miso we got food like Natto or Tofu, those are the impressive products of which Japan should be proud.
If I line up on the table the ingredients I buy the most, they are Miso, Natto and Tofu, "they are all made of soy!": I feel like tsukkomu my own self. Well, maybe in the end I love in an unusual way processed soy (but don't think that because green beans come from soy I like them too, they are one of the things that "I think I hate").
By the way, what I wanted to say is about my other beloved bean. Coffee. Coffe is a weird ingredients that I can't help but tie to the world "good". I wrote about tea before but I can't compare the two things at all.
Until high school I couldn't drink it at all but now I can't drink anything but black coffee, I'm in the middle of a coffee addiction. There are few people who think that coffee is good at their first time as "cofee virgin". But then without them noticing, they end up to turn into unhealthy coffee drinkers. I think that the condition of being able to drink black coffee is the symbol of adulthood.
At home I grind coffee beans with a mill. The mellow scent that is spread in the living room became my most perfect rapresentation of the word "liking".
Then I filter it with a paper drip in a cup I previously warmed up. I put the smashed beans on the paper and I pour on the top of it boiling water. Then I carefully extract the content. If some beans in the glove settled down I add other water. In total it takes 3 minutes. With this I can do a big cup.
There must be people who prefer instant coffee but the real reason why I do all this is that I want to drink good coffee, it's a little different. Tastes are unquestionable but I just don't want to drink bad coffee. If coffee isn't properly prepared it's just a low-quality product. Coffee is a delicate drink, it's not only about appereances. If I'm asked what drink I hate I'd answer "The last sip of cold coffee left". Saying something like this it may seems that "I think I hate" coffee.
But surely I love coffee more than anybody else. I tend to be suspicious of who don't have the confidence of say with all their heart that coffee is good and also of people who drink other coffee, I wonder if they really think it's good. My doubt is if our sense of the word "good" is the same or not. Saying something like this it may seems that "I think I hate" coffee. But there's no mistake "I think I love" it.
If I drink a lot of strong coffee I'm very awake.
Coffee with his warmth and wonderful power can turn my pains in good feelings.
More than erase them, I want to enjoy my pains.
-Napoleon Bonaparte-
Even now I'm hardworking on this work drinking coffee. ...no pun intended. Because the dictionary says this "mame" is written like this 忠実.*
Right now I'm diligently writing about beans. ...A pun in the end...
"I think I hate" this kind of things.
*That "hardworking" is read "mame" in japanese but "mame" is also the word for "bean", here it is the pun.
That second line is so readable in japanese: "Boku wa ima, mame ni mame ni tsuite kaite iru" :)