In Murakami's novels, many characters often cook food, and there are a few food that I remember most deeply. I think it also represents Murakami’s way of thinking in a sense. One of the dishes that I think is quite impressive is the pasta and macaroni. At the beginning of Chapter 1 of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, the protagonist cooks pasta in the kitchen. I think the process of cooking pasta is essentially a thought process. When you boil the hot water, put in the noodles, and stir the noodles in the hot water with chopsticks, it is like solving a puzzle. We might as well think of pasta as a rope. The process of entering the water is to unravel the tangled noodles, become soft, and then soak in the water to melt and become edible. Unraveling the rope is like solving a problem. Unraveling the rope one at a time is to remove the surface layer of things and dig out the truth of the essence of things. When I am stirring the noodles, I often see the tangled noodles, which become loose after soaking in water and stirring, and there will be a sudden burst of thoughts come into my mind.
In Barn Burning, when eating an orange, the process of “peeling the orange peel” is actually a puzzle-solving process. When people peel off the peel of an orange, they are peeling off the surface of the thing, and then getting closer to the flesh and the pit is getting closer to the essence of the thing. Although many people think peeling an orange is a hassle, here I am able to calm down and think and feel life. Another dish that Murakami often mentions is sandwiches. In the novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, the fat granddaughter makes sandwiches a part of her daily life, and the main characters in Barn Burning also eat sandwiches. In Killing Commendatore, the protagonist eats a sandwich while thinking about his delicate relationship with his wife. Eating a sandwich is like breaking down each layer of structure and getting closer to the essence of things. It’s the same process as making a sandwich, we use bread, lettuce, tomatoes, eggs, patties, and then make the same structure in reverse. Each building layer is to reinforce a layer of structure on the basis of the essence of things. On the other hand, the process of eating a sandwich is thinking and analyzing, disintegrating the structure from the top and bottom, and then gradually approaching the essence of things. In addition, I think Murakami also wants to make readers feel more about life through these foods. Whether it’s cooking pasta, making sandwiches, or making coffee, it's all a slow job. Everyone needs to feel the process seriously, and feel the thinking that life and life bring to you from making these delicacies.
Like cucumber with nori and soy sauce. I've had cucumbers, and nori, and soy sauce. But I have never eaten cucumber, nori and soy sauce together. Of course I've had similar sushi. But eating them together like that was a whole new experience, like pulling the trigger on a pistol. It made me feel a certain point in my body magnified the moment I bit down on the cucumber drenched in soy sauce and wrapped in nori. I don't know exactly what it was, but I'm sure it activated a sense, or perception, in me. The process of gradually finishing the cucumber was like approaching the process of that sense or ability that I wanted to know. The process made me feel like I was getting closer to the truth.
Junze Shan (Andrew)
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