Free Announcer Aika Kanda “Foods I Hate and Why I Hate Them

My Mother’s Likes and Dislikes” that I Discovered as an Adult

Since childhood, I was raised to be an adult without likes and dislikes. I never once felt that way about carrots, green peppers, and other typical foods that children dislike. This is because there was no room for it. Even if I did taste bitterness, I would just say, “That’s just the way it is. They didn’t offer me any alternatives, so I had no choice but to eat them. So, at that time, I had no idea that “I don’t like the taste, so I won’t eat it! I had no idea that I would not eat it because I did not like the taste.

However, when I became an adult and traveled with my mother, I found out that she herself had many likes and dislikes. She was not fond of mushrooms in general, garlic, kimchi, and other unique flavors, and several kinds of fish.

Thinking back, not once did I find any of those things in my mother’s cooking. I guess because if people knew that my parents also disliked some of these foods, it would be less convincing to say, “Don’t like them. So they have spent their time with those foods as if they were not in this world.

Every time we often had grilled yellowtail for dinner, my mother would pick up the hemelytized part with chopsticks and eat it, saying, “This part is nutritious and delicious! She would say, “This is where the nutrition is and it’s delicious! However, as soon as I became an adult, my mother left the yellowtail part out at the inn where we were traveling. She said, “Oh, that!　You liked it, didn’t you?” She replied, “Of course I didn’t like it!　This place is disgusting. I had to hold back and eat it on purpose so you wouldn’t stop eating it. Thanks to you, I can eat it now, can’t I?” He said. I was astonished that he went that far and that it was a part of the body that I should be able to eat.

And so now, the only things I think, “I don’t like this and don’t want to eat it,” are things I encountered as an adult. Examples are …… hokke, saba (mackerel), and conger eel.

I first learned about hokke at an izakaya I went to in college. My friend said, “Delicious! but for me, it was a fish I didn’t know. I was afraid to go home that day without eating even a bite, so I asked my mother, “Do you know that hokke was served today? I asked my mother, “Do you know a fish called hokke today? She replied, “Hockey?　My grandfather told me not to eat such a big fish because it was vulgar.

My mother grew up as a young lady. She had been taught that “big, inexpensive fish = vulgar,” and she did not allow me to eat it either. In fact, that is not true, but the impression is so strongly etched in my mind that I still don’t order it myself. If someone asks for it, I take a bite to get used to it.

I first learned about saba (mackerel) at a breakfast prepared for me after an overnight shift in Fukuoka, my first post at NHK. I asked the vendor who brought it to me, “What kind of fish is this? He replied, “I don’t know!　Mackerel! I was like, “? I was like, “I don’t know!

Even as an adult, my mother’s influence was enormous.

I immediately called my mother and asked, “I have a fish called mackerel right in front of me, can I eat it?” I asked. The answer was no. It’s a fast fish. I’ve never eaten it before. In retrospect, it was fine, but at the time I declined and ate only white rice.

But one of Fukuoka’s specialties is sesame mackerel. A few days later, I faced it for the first time at an izakaya (Japanese-style bar) I went to with a senior colleague. I couldn’t say to him, “My parents told me not to eat it ……,” and I was prepared to die trying it. I was surprised at how delicious it was, and I have been eating only sesame mackerel ever since.

Lastly, conger eel. The first time I ate conger eel was in my early 30s. It was served at a sushi restaurant with only a counter. I thought, “Eel?” but the chef said, “Anago. The eels I had eaten were always grilled and brown in a stacked box. Yet the eel in front of me was white and sushi-like. （When I tasted it, I found it cold, soggy, and the sauce was too deliberate for my palate.

A few days later, I asked my mother, “Do you know what anago is?” She replied, “Of course. But they are similar to eel, so you can eat eel instead. It was true, if they are similar, one is better than the other. Since then, I have tried to say in advance, “I don’t want sea eel.

There are many foods that I have encountered as an adult that I like. Such is the case with kimchi and garlic, which my mother dislikes. But the foods I don’t like are also all things I never ate as a child. If I had been forced to eat them, I would not have disliked them. When I think about it, I wonder if my parents’ strategy to eliminate my likes and dislikes was right ……, but I am grateful anyway.

Aika Kanda was born in 1980 in Kanagawa Prefecture. After graduating from Gakushuin University with a degree in mathematics, she joined NHK as an announcer in 2003, and left NHK in 2012 to become a freelance announcer. Since then, she has been active mainly in variety shows, and currently appears regularly as the main MC of the daytime TV program “Poka Poka” (Fuji Television Network).

Her first book, ” Where are you going on the road called Royal Road? is now on sale by popular demand!

From “FRIDAY” March 14/21, 2025 issue