Anzac Day (...and karate)

This Friday is Anzac Day here in Australia and I have to admit, I like a good Anzac biscuit. To be honest, there's not many biscuits I don't like, but let's not get too distracted. You might already be wondering what good old Anzac biscuits and Karate have in common, well, I'll get to that. First let's discuss soft and chewy, or hard and crunchy. I'm a soft and chewy guy. I'm not a fan of the sudden crunch and even less so of the crumbs. I also think soft and chewy ones taste better. Of course, faced with a choice, I'd pick a crunchy Anzac biscuit over no biscuit every day of the week. Now, I'm sure, if you gave 5 people all the same recipe and cooking instructions for Anzac biscuits, you'll get 5 different batches of biscuits, all with the same basic flavour, but all just a little different.

Flavour, that's what I'm getting to. In Japanese, the word for flavour is "aji" and in Okinawa you might hear it used in connection with Karate. Not in a "taste my fist" kinda way, more in a "develop your own flavour" kinda way. You see, each sensei has they're own flavour to their Karate. Hypothetically, an example could be one sensei really likes to hit the makiwara, another likes chin-ups, or another loves to stomp on your foot.

Deep thoughts about "aji".

If you're like me, and you've never baked a biscuit from scratch in your life, if you tried taking an Anzac biscuit recipe and have a crack at it all by yourself, the odds are the result will be somewhat inedible. Following a recipe with a bit of expert guidance though, I'm sure I could make something palatable. With a bit more practice and advice, I'm sure I would eventually be able to churn out a pretty decent batch that I'd be willing to share with friends (minus a couple I had to QC check). With time and practice (and a few failures along the way) I might even learn how to make little adjustments to the process to make them more to my liking, to my personal taste.

You know where I am going now, right? You can't be a novice and expect to do things however you want and expect to get the result you're after. Instead, you need expert guidance, and only with time and experience, success and failure, can you understand the process well enough to give it your own flavour. To push the analogy a little further, even 5 equally experienced biscuit makers with the same recipe will make 5 similar tasting, but not quite the same, batches of biscuits. They will all probably taste great despite the differences, but you'll probably be able to pick one you prefer. Even with the same teacher (same recipe), each Karate student will be a little different from each other, and that's OK.

So, do you like crunchy or chewy? Maybe something in middle? And has your preference changed over the years?

Mmmmmm Biscuits.