Monday, September 01, 2008
Oishiku mo nai
I was explaining to an OB that whilst "sushi", "sake" and "tofu" are likely to be understood by English speakers, variations thereof, such as "chirashi-zushi", "shiro-zake" and "age-dofu", are just going to confuse people.
He was good enough to explain that shiro-zake is made from rice and kouji.
Ah, kouji. I said, picking up my board marker. I haven't a clue what kouji is of course, but I figured I might as well have a stab. I sketched out a couple of kanji on the board.
On the left, kou: crimson.
On the right, ji: haemorrhoids.
Unsurprisingly, this turned out not to have been what he meant at all, although he had a good laugh at my attempt.
I admitted that I didn't know what kouji was and he conceded that shiro-zake wasn't really all that different from regular sake. Except for the fact that it was non-alcoholic.
I told him that calling it non-alcoholic sake would be a good start.
He was good enough to explain that shiro-zake is made from rice and kouji.
Ah, kouji. I said, picking up my board marker. I haven't a clue what kouji is of course, but I figured I might as well have a stab. I sketched out a couple of kanji on the board.
On the left, kou: crimson.
On the right, ji: haemorrhoids.
Unsurprisingly, this turned out not to have been what he meant at all, although he had a good laugh at my attempt.
I admitted that I didn't know what kouji was and he conceded that shiro-zake wasn't really all that different from regular sake. Except for the fact that it was non-alcoholic.
I told him that calling it non-alcoholic sake would be a good start.
