sushionthebarbie:

Word of the day: Oishi

Oishi means yummy, delicious and mm-mm-good! I visited a strawberry farm today in a small city called Izu no kuni. For 1,500 yen (about $17) you can pick and eat as many strawberries you want for half an hour. On the hour and a half bus ride there, I overhead people talking about how many strawberries they ate on the trip last year. One man said he had 37 strawberries, which made me wonder “Seriously? All you can eat strawberries? What’s the big deal?”  

I soon figured that out for myself. We arrived at a field of greenhouses and before we entered, we each were given a plastic tray to put our strawberries in. It came with a side of condensed milk. Inside the greenhouse were the biggest, reddest strawberries I’d ever seen. No, seriously! Not wanting to ruin the beautiful bouquet of strawberries in front of me, I finally gingerly plucked a juicy red delight and dipped it in the sweet, syrupy condensed milk. OMG- OISHI! Even with the strawberry alone it was perfect, but but once I added the bit of condensed milk I was in heaven!

There is really no adequate way for me to describe how amazing a strawberry could suddenly taste. It was perfectly ripe, juicy and easy to sink my teeth into. I have never seen strawberries this huge and never this perfectly fresh, flavorful and bright, bright red! About 15 succulent strawberries later, I suddenly understood how one could easily consume over double that in one visit. Who knew that this oishi-licious berry could bring such simple pleasure?