Falling In...

Otherwise known as A Bit About My Favorite Season...

I have a confession to make:  Fall is my favorite season.  To take it a step further... October is my favorite month, mainly and selfishly because it is my birth month but there are many more reasons than that.  Even here in My Small Town in central Florida, signs of autumn abound. Certain trees are just barely tinged with a bit of gold, pumpkin ale has appeared in the beer aisle at Publix;  Halloween candy has been widely available ever since the excess school supply inventory was packed up and sent to Big Lots.

In Japan, autumn is the season for eating.  Crispy tempura sitting at the counter, with grated daikon, and beer to wash it down.  Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) braised in soy sauce and brown sugar... ummmmm.... I remember one Thanksgiving when I was working in Fujisawa...  (They don't consider American Thanksgiving a holiday, imagine!)  I went home for lunch, and made this marvelous soy, kabocha, and brown sugar braised dish that tastes like something you would eat with turkey at the holiday table.  It satisfied my need for comfort food when I knew that my family would be feasting together.  Other great fall foods included salty miso soup with enoki mushrooms or tiny bits of pumpkin.  Marvelous pumpkin custard, available in fancy department store dessert counters from September to the end of November.  So.  Very.  Good.  The food I dream about when I think about eating in Japan.

Of course, fall was when when Mt. Fuji would come out from under the veil of smog and show himself in full glory.  The rose-tinted early morning sky reflected on the top of the already-beginning-to-be-snow-capped Fuji-san was a sight to behold.  I treasure so many memories of fall in Japan.  Riding on the train into the countryside with the gorgeous Japanese maple trees ablaze in reds, oranges, golds.  To a Floridian who doesn't experience very much change-of-season action, witnessing this kind of autumnal beauty was... captivating.

This is the time of year when the Florida heat starts being a little less oppressive, hinting at the lovely, clear, cool days to come.  The Food and Wine Festival is happening at the Futuristic and International Theme Park near My Small Town.  Oktoberfest is right around the corner.  Scarecrows will appear in folks' yards soon, including ours, as well as the ubiquitous gorgeous pumpkins.

And the squash?  Don't even get me started!  I love everything about this time of year.  I do believe, I am falling in...