Sunday, July 28, 2013

Why not mix performance and cooking?

DJ Miso Shiru and MC Gohan raps and roasts on 'Mother's Food' | The Japan Times

While I'm generally against making generalizations (oh gosh, what a clever lad am I!), if I had to make one about Japan, it's that this is a food-obsessed country.  Or maybe I'm the food-obsessed one so I notice all the TV shows about cooking and eating and that's skewed my perspective, along with an appreciation of acts like Shonen Knife and Cibo Matto who made their initial impressions on me by singing about food.

What I'm struck by when reading about DJ Miso Shiru and MC Gohan isn't so much the name of her act-- which translates to "miso soup" and either "rice" or simply "meal" or "food," it's the chances of an actual cooking demonstration breaking out at her gigs.  And that her raps consist of recipes.  Rather than simply celebrating the pleasures of food, DJ Miso Shiru and MC Gohan says, "I just want to make people want to cook."

The emphasis on the second want comes directly from The Japan Times, but I see this concept as the logical extension of food-based songcraft.  Rather than put out cook books, perhaps it's time for someone like her to put out cook albums.

Someone call the Food Network.  They seem to have an opening right now.

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