We’ll Meet Again: A pandemic story in three acts

Act I - The Before Times

March 16th, 2020 was the last day of the Before Times for me. It was the last day I thought I was going to have an ordinary day working in NOAA’s offices before going home to my beloved Greenwood neighborhood. We got the word late in the day to pack up and take our laptops home and prepare to work remotely for at least two weeks. I hated this idea. I didn’t want to lose the enjoyment of working across from my best friend all day, or going out to lunch, or having casual hallway conversations. I didn’t like the idea of being alone all the time.

I’ll complain and moan for a while when work compels me to do something I don’t want to, but ultimately I know which side of the bread the butter is on, so I soldier up and do what needs to be done. I, my bestie, and his housemate at the time packed up our laptops at the usual time and made our standard goodbye stroll to the parking lot. They walked slow to smoke cigarettes before starting their brutal hour + commute northward. I just enjoyed the chat.

They finished their smokes and it was time to part. Some place of deep knowing inside me opened up and I would have said then that I feared, but really I knew that it was going to be much longer than two weeks before I saw them again.

I started singing. It didn’t feel voluntary.

We’ll meet again. Don’t know where; don’t know when

but I know we’ll meet again some sunny day.

Keep smiling through just like you always do

‘til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away.

Memories of our mom flooded me. She was a WWII veteran born and raised in England. She often told us that one of the things that got her through the war was Very Lynn’s recording of We’ll Meet Again written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles. Mom and I would sing it together when I was a teenager while we danced in the living room. She showed me then the power that music has to reach us when nothing else can.

My best friend and his housemate stared at me as I came back from wherever I had gone and started crying.

“Y’ OK?”

“Yeah. Mom used to sing that. It’s from the War.”

I drove home and as I passed through the little business district I think of as ‘downtown Greenwood’ past the restaurants and bars where I spend some of the happiest hours. As I did, the song came out of me again and I felt certain that there would be a shutdown and these places would be dark and silent for an unknown amount of time. It felt like the end of the world.

You can listen to a wonderful rendition of this song by a choral group from England called the D-Day Darlings here:

The second thing that Mom said got her through the war was knowing that then Princess Elizabeth was serving in the military just like she was.

On April 5th, 2020, Queen Elizabeth II made an unprecedented speech about the pandemic. The whole video is worth watching, especially if you are an American who doesn’t understand the value that Her Majesty brings to her people. If you are short on time, though, you can jump ahead to minute four. She makes reference to We’ll Meet Again in encouraging everyone listening to remember that better days are ahead and that we will overcome this problem.

It felt like she was speaking directly to me; or that someone was.

Act II - Sunset Harping and Fae Wiedenhoeft

Inspired by viral videos of musicians in Rome under severe lockdown orders singing and playing instruments from their balconies (sometimes collaboratively with other balconies!) I decided that one small thing I could do was play harp from my own balcony. No one would hear, of course, because it overlooks noisy Greenwood Avenue. My favourite time of day to be here at my condo is sunset. I have a pretty good view of the Olympic mountains to the west and there are times when the sky is breathtaking. I decided that would be the time of day I would play music. It would give me an anchor, and by following the sunset later and later in the day I would keep myself oriented toward the world beyond my four walls.

I had the idea of doing a Facebook live broadcast of these sunset shows, so on March 21st, 2020 the first episode of Sunset Harping happened. I continued to produce half-hour episodes about four times a week and gathered a surprisingly large and loyal following. The show did what I intended. It gave me a relief from feeling alone and it gave all of us an anchor in each day to stop, breathe, and assess.

By early July, there were some temporary reductions in Covid restrictions, which allowed me to invite guests to be on the show with me. One of them was my friend Fae Weidenhoeft. She is a fabulous singer songwriter who I met when she started taking Gaelic classes in the Zero to Gaelic program and singing in the choir. Fae is a blazing talent and a fabulous human and I was delighted to have her with me on the balcony. Over dinner we discussed what we would do on the show and she brought up We’ll Meet Again. It was one of the songs she wanted to perform on the show and she knew it was special to me, but not why, so I told her.

We started the show off with that number with her on ukulele and singing lead. I had worked out a harmony for some parts, but the song has far too many sudden changes of sharps and flats for a lever harp, so I didn’t play. It was an absolutely magical moment. You can see it here:

Act III - A new instrument and a neglected set of skills

My music career has been thoroughly and happily devoted to the music of the Gaelic-speaking people of Scotland, Ireland, and Nova Scotia. My original education, however, was in classical music at Cornish College of the Arts. It took a while before I really found my feet and started to excel, but I managed it. By the time I graduated, I put together a program for my senior recital that included a very respectable collection of mainstream, challenging pedal harp pieces.

Traditional music by and large, doesn’t call for huge range and full chromatic capability of a classical harp, but is better served by the smaller, portable, more resonant, and less expensive lever harp. I have two artist quality lever harps. One was made for me in Scotland, and the other right here in Seattle. They are wonderful, fulfilling instruments that are perfectly suited for what I have done with them. No complaints there.

Although I had completed my degree in classical music, I never owned my own classical harp. I rented a small one from my teacher and regretfully returned it shortly after finishing my degree. I was soon off and running into the world of traditional music, and my investments belonged in instruments that would serve me there.

In 2011, the World Harp Congress was held in Vancouver BC, and my friend Alys Howe with whom I preformed in a harp duo, got us booked to do a concert of music from Scotland and Cape Breton. It was great fun. While I was there, I also spent a bit of time in the vendors hall looking at all the instruments including the classical harps. A spark of interest grew in me.

It took a decade for that spark to grow into action, but in February of 2021, when I was due to receive my inheritance from my parents, I placed an order for a new Lyon and Healy pedal harp. It arrived near the end of June and it was time for me to dust off a stack of music I hadn’t played in 30 years or more. Although my hands could play all the right strings, on a classical harp you have to move seven pedals at the base of the instrument, each of which has three positions, to get all the sharps and flats. That skill was a bit rusty. Like really rusty.

I had the idea to use We’ll Meet Again as a kind of study piece. I pulled out the sheet music that Fae had given me a copy of and spent an evening working out what all the pedal changes would be to get all the right sharps and flats at the right times. It turns out there were quite a lot, so it has been a great exercise.

It has also given me a way to take ownership of the importance of the song in my life. Mom taught me how to find hope in dark times through her love of that song. Queen Elizabeth told me that things would get better again, and I believed her because she touched the place that song holds in my heart. Fae wanted to know why that song mattered to me, because I mattered to her.

Now I can play We’ll Meet Again whenever I need to remember those things.

Kanikama Salad

This was an improvisation that has received enthusiastic reviews, so I wanted to share it here.

Kanikama Salad

• 1 seedless cucumber
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces imitation crab (225g)
• 1 avocado
• 4 tablespoons Japanese mayonnaise
• 1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon mirin
• 1/2 teaspoon usokuchi or plain soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon wasabi paste
• Nori goma furikake

Remove the ends of the cucumber and either compost or save for another use. Split down the middle and use a vegetable peeler to remove a strip of skin down the back of each. Slice into 1/4 inch pieces and place in a freezer bag. Add about a teaspoon of salt and seal the bag. Smoosh the cucumber around and set aside for about 15 minutes.

Crumble the imitation crab into a large mixing bowl.

Peel and dice the avocado into chunks roughly like the size of the cucumber pieces and set aside.

Combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, and wasabi paste and mix well.

Pour the cucumber pieces into a sieve and allow the water that the salt has pulled out of the cucumber to drain.

Add the cucumber into the mixing bowl with the crab. Add the dressing and toss. Add the avocado pieces and mix very lightly.

Spoon into individual serving bowls and place in the refrigerator if not serving immediately. Sprinkle furikake on the salads immediately before serving.

Kakitamajiru - かきたま汁 - Egg Flower Soup

After a year of making miso soup several times a week, I went in search of a new soup to make and I didn’t have to look far. This is a very popular soup in Japan. It differs from the Chinese version in that the broth is dashi rather than chicken stock, and is thickened with potato starch. Other than the dashi, egg, and flavourings, you can substitute other ingredients such as green onion, mushroom, carrot, etc.

One possible adjustment you may want to make is a hybrid stock of 1/2 awase (mixed) dashi and 1/2 vegetable dashi. Since most dashi is made with seafood ingredients like kelp, anchovies, bonito flakes, etc. it has a strong ocean smell. My husband calls it “essence of low tide.” I love it, but some may find it too prominent without the very strong flavour of miso.

Kakitamajiru

• 2 cups dashi
• 1 tablespoon usokuchi or standard soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 1 1/2 teaspoon potato starch
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon dried hijiki seaweed
• 1/4 cup baboo shoot strips

Place the seaweed in a small bowl with water to rehydrate.

Make a slurry of the potato starch with some water

Bring the dashi to a rolling boil and add the soy sauce, mirin, and sake.

Add the potato starch and cook until the broth becomes clear again and is slightly thickened.

Reduce heat and allow the soup to cool to a scant boil.

Beat the egg in a measuring cup. Place a cooking chopstick on top of the cup resting in the pouring spout. Very slowly drizzle the beaten egg down the chopstick to make the egg flowers. If you run out of room, you can scoot the already cooked egg out of the way with the other cooking chopstick so that most of the time, your egg is going into the dashi rather than already cooked egg.

Remove from heat and cover to let all the egg cook thoroughly.

Add seaweed and bamboo shoots and stir.

Itadakimasu! 頂きます

Niku Soba - 肉そば - Beef Noodle Soup

I made myself some Sukiyaki for dinner last night, so had some of the exquisitely thinly sliced marbled beef left over and was casting about for something to do with it while it was still at its prime. In casting, my eye landed on a container of chashu marinade; the byproduct of making chashu pork during my last ramen week. These things, combined with an abundance of vegetables needing used up inspired me to give this dish a try.

If you’re not a ramen-making person, you can make yourself a small batch of something very much like chashu marinade by combining 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup sake, and 1/4 cup sugar. It won’t have the pork belly goodness, but is a fair substitute.

As many Japanese recipes do, this one calls for dashi soup stock. You can buy powders, bags to soak in hot water like a tea bag, or surrender to the siren song of washoku and make your own. Nami will help you.

Niku Soba - 肉そば

• 2 cups dashi
• 1 cup chashu or ramen egg marinade
• 1 teaspoon chili bean paste (toban djang)
• ~ 10 broccoli florets
• 1 small carrot
• 1 green onion
• 2 leaves green cabbage
• ~ 10 shimeji mushrooms
• 1/4 pound sukiyaki beef
• 1 teaspoon miso
• Soba noodles
• Bean sprouts

Wash and prepare vegetables. Carrots should be peeled and sliced on the diagonal.

Combine dashi, marinade, and chili bean paste in a donabe or similar sized pot. Heat until the mixture is near boiling. Place broccoli and carrot in the broth and cover. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 2 minutes.

Prepare soba noodles according to package instructions.

Add remaining ingredients except for the bean sprouts and simmer for a further 2 minutes.

Using a spoon-sized sieve and chopsticks or spoon, dissolve the miso into the broth. Be sure the broth is well below the boiling point so you don’t kill the live cultures in the miso.

Place noodles in a ramen bowl and ladle soup over it.

Garnish with bean sprouts.

Itadakimasu! - いただきます

Hanjuku Tamago Gohan - 半熟卵ご飯 - Soft Boiled Egg and Rice

As I have spent the last nine months working on my Japanese traditional cooking skills and repertoire, I’ve developed some favourite recipes, and also made some of my own customizations to suit my tastes. This one has become my standard weekday breakfast because it is so quick, easy, and satisfying at the start of a day of work.

Tamago Gohan is a classic Japanese breakfast dish that is simply an egg cracked over steaming hot rice. The heat from the rice cooks the egg as you stir it up. It’s also common to add a splash of soy sauce and sesame seeds or furikake.

In my variation, I soft boil the egg, leaving the yolk liquid, and top it off with a seasoning sauce of my own invention made with soy sauce and miso.

Seumas’ Hanjuku Tamago Gohan

Seasoning sauce

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup white miso paste
• 1/4 cup hot chili oil (adjust to your spice preference)
• 1 dash of sesame oil

Combine the ingredients and blend well. I use an immersion blender to get a thorough result. The miso will settle, and the oil will rise but if you start with a well blended mixture, then a quick shake or stir will get it back in shape to use. The amount above lasts me a week or so.

I keep my seasoning sauce in a squeeze bottle for easy access in the morning.

For the bowl

• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup uncooked short grain white rice
• Sprinkle of furikake (I prefer seaweed and sesame)

Thoroughly rinse the rice and combine with 5 ounces of water. I use a Japanese rice cooker that I can set up the night before to have my rice ready when I get up, but stove top will work fine as long as you are careful.

I use my Instant Pot to soft boil my egg in 4 minutes at low pressure with quick release.

Remove the egg immediately and hold under cold running water to cool the shell so you can peel it comfortably. After peeling, just place it in your bowl and bury it in rice.

Sprinkle furikake, and add seasoning sauce.

I like to stab the egg through the rice with my chopsticks to release the delicious egg yolk and let it slowly combine with the rice, but you do you!