My father passed away nearly 40 years ago. He was a great gourmet, but also loved to experiment. He ran his own fine chemical company and held several domestic and international patents. He was something of an inventor, too—a trait that fully manifested in his home cooking.

 

Since childhood, I was accustomed to breakfasts featuring tonkatsu, curry, piles of fried eggs, and morning steaks. My father’s penchant for experimentation leaned toward mixing various things to create new flavors. Back then, there were soft drinks that would change the color of your tongue when you drank them, and my father enjoyed mixing those carbonated drinks with all sorts of things. Among his many experimental beverages, I was fond of mixing Fanta Grape with milk. However, I soon realized that if you didn't drink it quickly, it would gradually separate into lumpy chunks, losing its smoothness and flavor. After that, I shifted to mixing Calpis with milk instead.

 

He also used to mince natto, tuna, shiso leaves, and green onions on a cutting board, heap them onto rice, or roll them in nori. Sometimes the tuna was upgraded to fresh sashimi. My father also loved French cuisine; my mother says he frequented Shiseido Parlour almost daily with a gentleman named Mr. Tanaka, with whom he had business connections. Apparently, they held Shiseido Parlour cards numbered 1 and 2, so it might not be an exaggeration after all.

 

He loved mixing various ingredients together, blending them into sauces with a juicer-mixer, and drizzling them over meat or fish. He would then encourage my mother, my grandmother (who often visited), and me to try them, saying, "Isn't this delicious? Go on, have some," and he loved hearing our reactions and feedback.

 

It was in this environment that I learned a forbidden food from my father: butter rice. You take warm rice, top it with butter, add a splash of soy sauce, and adjust it to your liking. Yes, butter rice. It’s a cliché, but it was a blissful flavor. Sometimes I’d wrap it in nori or add ikura (salmon roe). The joy of capturing that supreme flavor, right at the magical moment when the butter is about to fully melt into the steaming, translucent rice—it’s indescribable. It’s a sinful combination to teach a young elementary schooler.

 

Especially when ikura was added, I truly couldn't stop. Originally, there was a sushi restaurant called Midori-zushi next to the animal hospital my father opened and my mother later took over. It became my routine to sit at the counter there and order kappa maki without wasabi and pink denbu (sweet fish flakes) rolls. Since I couldn't really eat raw fish, the only other topping I could manage was the ikura gunkan. I remember fondly referring to the ikura as "meme, meme" (eyes, eyes) even before I started elementary school. I thought nothing of it at the time, but looking back decades later, calling ikura "meme" is... a rather surreal expression, isn't it? Though, they do indeed look like eyeballs.

 

Setting that aside, while the forbidden food I learned from my father was butter rice, he told me that the milk rice he taught me came from his father—my grandfather. Even now, I rarely see anyone around me eating this on a regular basis. You pour cold milk over warm rice, and I absolutely love this way of eating it too. (I still do.) It seems this is occasionally eaten in parts of Hokkaido, but my grandfather wasn't from Hokkaido.

 

My paternal grandmother was from Oita, my maternal grandmother from Gifu, and the family line is from Iwate, so it remains unclear where this habit originated. (My grandfather’s roots were in the Tohoku region; I was very surprised once to discover his name appearing briefly in a diary by Takuboku Ishikawa.) I have hardly ever revealed this (about milk rice) until now, as I strongly sensed that some might find it off-putting. It is probably a divisive dish. But for milk lovers, the contrast in temperatures, the texture, and that irresistible milky aroma go so well with rice. Much like the French dish "riz au lait" (milk porridge), I believe it is a perfect culinary pairing. If you haven't tried it, give it a go.

 

 

  Akiko Shibanai
Director of Akasaka Animal Hospital. After graduating from the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine at Nihon University, she worked at the Clinical Pathology Laboratory at the Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, before assuming the role of director at the hospital in 2016. As the third-generation director, following her parents, she promotes veterinary care centered on companion animals and the "Human Animal Bond." Specializing in general internal medicine, general surgery, and regenerative medicine, she has also served as a member of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ Veterinary Affairs Council and as a part-time lecturer at the Nihon University College of Bioresource Sciences. She is also dedicated to social contributions through veterinary medicine, such as supporting the coexistence of the elderly and animals, and animal therapy activities, aiming to build a society where people and animals can live happily together as her life's theme.