Former Resident of Dunedin Discusses Food Service in Japan

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27082, 17 May 1949, Page 2

Former Resident of Dunedin Discusses Food Service in Japan

Australia, Manila, Tokio has been the route of Mrs B. D. Rindlaub, formerly Miss Margaret Walker, of Dunedin, whois at present visiting her native city. When war broke out Mrs Rindlaub was doing secretarial work in Australia and later became a secretary attached to American Army GHQ in Australia. In company with eight other civilian secretaries she went to American Army GHQ in Manila in April, 1945. Here she stayed for nine months, going to Tokio at the end of the year. When Mrs Rindlaub and her companions reached Tokio they were at first billeted in an hotel taken over by the American army authorities, and, until a handful of American servicewomen arrived, they were the only women and the only civilians in the hotel. They later moved to other billets in Tokio, one of which was particularly attractive. This was, situated on the top floor of a Japanese department store, and before the war part of it had evidently been used as a teahouse or a restaurant, for there was a delightful rock garden, complete with a miniature pool on the roof. Plants and flowers were still growing there, forming one of the beautiful gardens for which the Japanese are famous, and the secretaries considered themselves fortunate to find such delightful quarters. When asked about Japanese food, Mrs Rindlaub said that a great deal of it was not palatable according to Western tastes. One type of cooking was, however, very popular with visitors to Japan. This was'the frying in batter of all kinds of food, small pieces of fish, pieces of chicken and almost any kind of vegetable. Before restrictions were placed on visiting Japanese homes, Mrs Rindlaub was invited to a meal in a Japanese house. Here, she said, all the food was delicious and was served in a great many small courses, all cooked and passed round by the wife, who, according to Japanese custom, did not eat with the host and his guests. The Japanese had different sets of dishes for each course, said Mrs Rindlaub, all very small and delicately made and often designed to match the food contained in them. For a fish course the dishes were shaped like fish, with a smaller dish of the same pattern holding sauce for each person. Soup bowls with lids were another good idea. Tile Japanese always used them and the soup was piping hot when it was served. When Mrs Rindlaub first arrived in Tokio it was fairly easy to buy beautiful kimonos as families were selling them to buy food, but they had almost all disappeared by now and the Japanese themselves considered those latterly on sale as very inferior owing to poor quality of the dyes. Mrs Rindlaub is shortly leaving for America where she will Join her husband whose tour of duty in Japan finishes in June. They are going to make their home in Washington DC.