Fresh and Alive (Day 13)

Dear Diary,

I don't much care for soy sauce. Surely the result of dousing my chop suey in that salty black liquid as I was growing up. It's just a bit too strong for my taste. So, no doubt I was skeptical when Maggie suggested I get Nama Shoyu. I live quite nicely without it, thank you very much, and it's not like it has any real nutritional benefits, right? I mean, not putting soy sauce on my food isn't like not eating broccoli. Nevertheless, Maggie said I had to try it, so off I went, in search of this mystery sauce.

My favorite grocery store didn't stock it. My not-so-favorite store didn't seem to know what I was talking about either. I couldn't even find it on the shelves at Whole Foods, that is until I asked. It must not be a big seller 'cause it was way down on the bottom shelf. (The fact that a 10 oz. bottle of the stuff will set you back ten bucks might have something to do with that, too.)

I came home and unpacked my groceries. What in the world made this stuff so special? I looked over the label and found the words 'Unpasturized. Fresh and Alive' and 'Traditionally aged in cedarwood kegs through 2 summers'. As I made my spinach avocado wrap, I added it to my bowl of already-marinating mushrooms. It popped when I opened it, like a bottle of soda. And I noticed as I put it away in the door of the refrigerator, that there were bubbles at the top, like a bottle of Guinness. What kind of magic is this elixir?

I sat down to eat my wrap and, I'm not sure if I even really tasted the soy sauce, (which may not be such a bad thing since I think I don't much care for the stuff.) I thought about what I was eating. I could see the cedarwood kegs, and the dark brown liquid 'living' inside the kegs though the long, warm summers. I thought about the word 'alive'. I considered the concept of eating living food and how my spinach was alive and the grain in my wrap was alive. I imagined a person eating a steak and saying he'd prefer his food not be alive - and laughing at his own joke, but I think I want to eat food that is still alive and full of living enzymes. Living food for living beings, doesn't that make sense?

Who knew there could be so much wisdom in a bottle of soy sauce ...

That's all for now,
deborah