Traditional Japanese Funeral Food - Local Style

Going to a Buddhist funeral here in Hawaii, you my find yourself partaking in quite a bit of tradition and not even know it. This even applies to the food that is customarily served to the guest by the family of the person that passed.

Usually when I go to a Buddhist funeral, which most of the time is at Hosoi Mortuary, I expect to see some familiar dishes. I especially look forward to Ige's shoyu pork, the meat is so tender it just melts in your mouth. I was getting frustrated trying to pick up the meat with my fork cause it kept falling apart... so I just shoveled it in. Such great manners... it's only family. Ige's I believe is one of the primary caterers at Hosoi. The picture of shoyu pork on the left may not look too appetizing because a whole bunch of people already went through the pan by the time I took the shot. You get the idear.

I'm not sure what the traditional value of the shoyu pork is, besides just tasting darn good, but several of the other dishes do have meaning. Traditionally there are "shojin" or a vegetarian dish that is served at Japanese funerals. Most of the dishes now have meat, but I believe Nishime probably started as a "shojin" food. Nishime often consists of carrots (ninjin), mushrooms (take), takenoko (bamboo shoots), konnyaku (tuber root that is jellylike), konbu (seaweed usually tied in a knot), and several other veggies. There is also pork or chicken pieces added to the mix of veggies and soy sauce base, which often times makes Nishime is a bit on the salty side.

Then there is the sushi with the green and red colored dried shrimp powder (hana ebi), which I know there is meaning to, but probably will have to ask my grandparents. Besides all these dishes, some of the other common foods you'd find at a funeral would be fried noodles, fried tofu, potato macaroni salad and andagi.

Andagi is a traditional Okinawan donut that is deep fried in oil. It is usually in a ball shape and has a semi-crisp brown outside and a dense sweet breadyish inside. Good stuff but a bit oily... I often do the napkin squeeze with mine to drain a bit of the oil. I get much grief about that so please don't send me any comments regarding that.

The one thing that always make me reminisce about my high school days is the traditional seating in the eating area at Hosoi. Another tradition Hosoi does is that they provide their signature baby blue bag for the family to hold all their "koden" or monetary condolence cards.

This post is dedicated to our grandpa Larry Funai who passed away last week. The funeral was held tonight and his burial tomorrow morning.
Toshio "Larry" Funai - June 15th, 1920 to June 10th, 2008.