On Saturday, I texted my mom: “We’re at Obon in Seattle!”
It’s kind of crazy that we’ve lived in Seattle for almost 5 years and never been to the Obon festival here. Or as Seattle calls it, Bon Odori. It’s a Buddhist festival of remembrance, but for me, it's always been more of a cultural event than a religious one. As a kid, Obon was synonymous with summer and it was about teri burgers and wontons and Okinawa dango and corn on the cob and snow cones and winning goldfish at carnival games and watching the bon dancing. And pretty much it still is. Even in a different city. You just don’t realize until you’re an adult how much those simple things connect you to so many other people.
If you ever want to know the backstory on a fruit, David Karp is your man. Last year, he wrote about the arrival of the dekopon, a Japanese variety of mandarin, just entering the market in California and I was all over my local stores in Washington trying to see if they'd carry them. No such luck.
So when Karp heralded the arrival of this year's dekopons, marketed as "Sumo Citrus," in last week's LA Times food section and it coincided with a trip down south to visit a friend, I knew we had to find a Whole Foods in her neighborhood.
If there's a Starbucks on every corner in Seattle, right next to it is a teriyaki shop. We have more teriyaki joints (most of them unmemorable) around here than any other place I've ever lived. In fact, there's one right next door to Aloha Ramen, which just seems crazy to me. But there's no contest -- you want to go to Aloha Ramen. You think you want chicken teriyaki? No, no, you want karaage, Japanese fried chicken, right next door.
