Kounomono are the pickles served late in the meal, forming with the hot-water pail and the final soup the group of three that announces the end of the rice. Two slices or so of plain pickles — salted, rice-bran, or lightly pickled — are arranged together.
Origins
The word is old and appears in Muromachi-period formal banquet cuisine. In tea kaiseki it is positioned as the means of finishing the rice and soup properly to the end, and choosing plain rather than elaborate pickles is the intent.
In practice
After finishing the rice with the final soup, the guest pours hot water from the pail into the rice bowl and uses a slice of pickle to clean the inside of the bowl. Eating the last slice without leaving it indicates that the hospitality has been received to the end — and it leaves the bowl clean, which is the practical half of the same gesture.
About this article
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