Short short with English summary
梅 「梅は咲いたか桜は未だかいな」と云うが、東京は丁度その季節だ。椿はまだ元気に咲き続けているが、この頃は紅梅白梅が盛りである。桜も早咲きの種類が咲いている。梅にも種類が多いのだろうが、我が家の近所では紅梅から咲き始め、白梅よりも長く咲いている。日本には梅見・花見で有名な観光地が数多い。 私は食いしん坊のせいか、梅・桜というと「梅干し」「桜餅」を連想する。英語で梅は、Japanese apricot と云い、直訳すれば日本の杏である。しかし、梅は杏とは全く違う。欧米には梅が生えていないということだろう。花はJapanese plumだ。 梅干しとご飯は切り離せない。説明すれば、酸っぱいとしか言えない単純な梅干しが、日本人の米食文化で大変大きくて重要な地位を占めていることを外国人に説明するのは難しい。“Ume” Japanese apricot There is an expression in Japanese; “How is the plum blooming? Isn’t the cherry blooming yet?” In Tokyo, we are just in the midst of the season. Camellia is still full flowering yet we meet full blooming of red plum and white plum. The early blooming type of the cherry is also full. I guess there are many types of plumes, I watch the red plum begins to flower then follows the white plum. The red plum survives longer than the white one. We have many resort places of seeing the plum or cherry blooming. Perhaps I am a glutton, I associate these words plum and cherry with Japanese food dried plum and sweet cherry cooky. In English “Ume” is “Japanese apricot” but “Ume” is a completely different plant from apricot. It means there is no “Ume” in Europe neither in USA. What is this dried plum? It is a salted pickle, half dried sticky Japanese plum fruit, which tastes very sour. It is very difficult to explain how important this pickled plum is in the Japanese food culture. We think this plum pickle with cooked rice is delicious.