Fuki Factory

The fuki is done.
Bought on Wednesday and finally all cooked by Sunday.
Thanks to Yujiro's gentle nagging about - What about the fuki? Did you finish the fuki? No, we don't have white sugar, brown will be just as good. Is this fuki ok? No, we don't have any white sugar, brown sugar is ok. Are you going to cook the fuki?

A huge bouquet of the stuff has been soaked in vinegar for two days, and boiled into submission in the Japanese all-purpose seasoning: "then add soy sauce, sugar, sweet rice wine...".
The kitchen smells like a sugar factory. In the pan is a medium-sized bowlful of fuki.
I think actually sansai (edible plants) is a misnomer.They aren't actually edible at all. It's stuff that poor people saw growing around them centuries ago, and they made it edible by cooking it for ages and adding lots of soy sauce and any other seasoning.
Really now with supermarkets and farming: why go to all this effort for something to eat? Brocolli is delicious just as it is. No need for all that salt and sugar and boiling!

Anyway. The kitchen looked a mess. I was working Saturday lunchtime and we were out Saturday night, so we left food out for Okaasan - amid the fuki cooking she ate what we left out, and didn't wash any dishes at all....so chaos reigned. Every surface was covered.

But it IS good. She bought something and cooked it herself. Whatever the outcome: she was active with her body and brain doing cooking, an activity she used to be good at. And I expect the results taste good. I sure hope so!
Supervising the cooking is a hassle - like a small child who needs supervising in the kitchen, if we left Okaasan to her own devices I think the fuki would still be in the newspaper wrapping under the heated carpet.
And there is the question of the OTHER fuki package. I am sure I saw it in her room on Friday morning, I've just looked now and I can't find it anywhere under the piles of newspapers and underwear, banana skins etc - but I still think there is more fuki lurking there.