Yubaba Miso Soup

This is Yubaba, from the film Spirited Away. She looks so scary to me; her head is bigger than a screen! But what I found scarier than her physical appearance is her magical skill of stealing people’s names, or I should say, stealing their identities. To me, she represents a modern corporation. When you work in a corporation, you get paid monthly, but they also “own” you monthly. If you ever worked at a company, especially in Japan, you know what it feels like to lose your identity little by little, in order to live and survive. It’s been a struggle what to feel about Yubaba in the film, because she is not a villain here. We kind of need her to run a company. She is just a human, managing her bathhouse, and also taking care of her little son. But since this is Halloween season, I thought about blaming all my frustration in this world on Yubaba, because blaming someone for our misfortune is one of the scariest things we can do to our mental health; -we can never control our reality that way.

Someone like her is a perfect target to blame, but when I see her in my miso soup, she didn’t look scary anymore; she looked sad. perhaps she is just like us, trying to survive, because if she doesn’t, nothing makes sense anymore. After all, she is the head of the bathhouse; -I hope my Yubaba appreciates my “miso bath” I created for her to ease her pain. So there you go, Yubaba in miso soup. I hope you like it.

1:Make Yubaba’s face shape with rice. 
When rice is done, pour the preferred amount of rice on a plate and start making the shape into Yubaba’s face. I recommend you to use plastic wrap for easier crafting.

2:Use Shirataki for the hair. 
Shirataki is the best for creating Yubaba’s white head! Put it on top of the rice like this.
3:Cut dried seaweed into thin pieces. 
This is great for making Yubaba’s facial wrinkles and eyeliners. Use the cooking scissors to cut the nori (seaweed) as thin as possible.  

4:Breakdown of Yubaba’s Face：

• Wrinkles and eyeliners＝Nori (Dried Seaweed)
• Eyeshadow＝Cabbage
• A giant wart ＝Rice soaked with soy sauce
• Eyes ＝Cheese
• Earrings＝Carrot
• Mouth＝Tomato
• Hair＝Shirataki

5:Done with the face!.
This is what she looks like when it’s all done. 6:Making Miso soup.
Prepare a large pot with water, and bring the mixture to a boil, and set the heat medium-low. I like just wakame (seaweed) and onion this time, but you can add more veggies if you like. 7:Add miso paste. 
Add miso paste at last, then simmer it for 15 min. Then you are all done! 8:Pour miso soup on Yubaba.
Gently pour the miso soup around her face, not on top of it, because you don’t want to destroy her face.We are done….. 
Look at this infuriating face. It takes a certain courage to take a bite of this masterpiece.
Who knew an old lady’s hair could be edible and delicious. At this point, you have no idea what you’re eating anymore. Happy Spooky Halloween.

Thanks for reading.
-Yuki