Cuttlefish -> RE: Small Ship, Big War (12/5/2008 1:29:10 AM)
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October 17, 1944 Location: Tokyo Course: None Attached to: TF 27 Mission: Surface Combat System Damage: 0 Float Damage: 0 Fires: 0 Fuel: 475 Orders: Await further orders --- Hello there! Please come in. The space is not large and it will quickly become crowded, so if those of you in front would come all the way in it would be appreciated. Excellent, thank you. Let me introduce myself. I am Seaman First Class Itokawa. Most of you will no doubt recall my earlier appearances in this narrative…what? You don’t? But I was in two entries! You remember, it was back when Hibiki was based at Kwajalein and Captain Ishii had everyone playing baseball. I was the pitcher for Lieutenant Sakati’s team, the Dragons. Well, no matter. What is important is that I am one of the ship’s cooks. I have been asked to talk to you today about rice. Rice is…I’m sorry, what? Oh. My sincere apologies. Yes, it seems likely that a large battle is coming up. But the Allies are taking their time and right now there is just not much going on. I know you would prefer tales of drama and excitement. I am mortified to be unable to provide them for you. If you will be patient I am sure something dramatic will happen soon. In the meantime, let us talk about rice. Please, take this bowl and pass it around. What you are looking at is uncooked Japanese short-grain rice, or japonica. It has been polished, which is to say that the outer husks of the rice grain have been removed. We Japanese much prefer to eat such rice. Unpolished rice is for prisoners and the very poor. There is something ironic in this, actually. It seems that rice hulls contain a great deal of niacin, a lack of which causes beriberi. To make up for the lack of niacin in the rice the Navy must allocate other foods, such as barley, to its sailors so they do not become sick. Rice is more than just the mainstay of the Japanese diet. It is a mainstay of our culture as well. It is very difficult for us to imagine a meal without rice in some form being involved. So naturally it is the most common and important food prepared here in the galley. We store the dry rice aboard in 80 pound sacks. Hibiki carries a great many of these sacks! If properly dried the rice keeps for a long time. The most common storage problem is usually rats but that is not a big issue aboard this ship. We prepare the rice in these very large kettles. The rice is washed and then soaked for an hour beforehand before being boiled. Five parts water to four parts rice, no salt added. After boiling it is steamed until done. Once cooked it will keep all day if covered. Believe it or not being a cook is one of the most dangerous jobs aboard ship. Do not laugh! Just imagine the challenge of working with these stoves and kettles in rough seas. They get very hot. Note the clamps on top of the stove to hold the kettles in place, and the clamps on the lids to hold them in place. But these can fail, and in any event we are getting thrown around too. Burns are common. If the weather gets too rough we cannot cook anything at all. But back to talking about rice. Properly cooked it is nice and sticky, which is how we Japanese like it. Most of it we serve plain, of course. But we can add it to a great many other dishes, too. It is a very versatile food. We frequently add it to red beans to make sekihan, or cover it with other foods to make different kinds of domburi. For special occasions we mash it to a paste to make mochi cakes. The list is really endless, though of course aboard ship there is a limit to our creativity. We have to feed a lot of men, after all. The door at the far end there leads to the forward crew’s mess. If you would be kind enough to make your way through a meal has been prepared for you. Watch your heads! The bulkhead doors here are likely to be a little low for many of you. You will need to sit rather close together, I am afraid. Space is at a premium aboard a destroyer. The sake is courtesy of Lieutenant Sakati. It is made from rice too, of course. The sweets in the little bowls are made from rice flour. I’m afraid we have only chopsticks, though do not hesitate to emulate the crew and use your fingers as well. Thank you all very much for coming. Please enjoy the meal.
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