Ichigo Miruku

My first year living in the dormitory in college I made friends with a Japanese girl, Tomoko. When Tomoko moved off campus the next year, we'd frequently go to her apartment where she'd cook us authentic Japanese dinners. She would teach us how to make miso soup, potato and beef korroke, how to make the perfect tempura batter and what Panko breadcrumbs were. While we were waiting for the food to cook she'd often make us green tea, or my favorite, Ichigo Miruku, which means strawberry milk in Japanese. You basically take a few fresh, ripe strawberries, add a sprinkle of sugar, pour just enough milk over them to cover, slightly crush the strawberries up in the milk, then eat with a spoon. Apparently this is kind of a classic way that a lot of Japanese kids grow up eating strawberries. I couldn't find any info about this online and I'll warn you now not to search for Ichigo Miruku because I, unfortunately, found out it's also the name of a Japanese porn star. Anyways, Tomoko would crush the strawberries for me and eventually I took over the job of the berry crushing and got quite good at it. I do this now with any seasonal berries I find at the market. My favorite is blackberries with cold cream poured over them instead of milk. The systematic crushing of the berries with your spoon is really satisfying and a bit cathartic. And watching the bright berry juices ooze into the cream, coloring it the palest of pastels is delightful.