Yasushi Suzuki & Mitsuharu Minamichi/Midori Satsuki -- Korokke no Uta（コロッケの唄）

 

One of my favourite dishes has been potato croquettes. They were easy to get in Japan because they are very popular there and my mother used to make them but they are rather labour-intensive and time-intensive to make so it's no longer that practical to get them from scratch anymore, although I wouldn't mind taking a crack at making them myself.

The croquette is another dish that was warmly welcomed into Japanese cuisine back in the late 19th century in the Meiji era, and another variety of the dish that has been another popular item in restaurants is the cream croquette. This one took a little more time for me to warm up to since the filling isn't potato but béchamel sauce with other ingredients including corn and crab meat. But once I did, they also became another popular item in my stomach.

Well, I've come up with another food-based kayo kyoku and it's known as "Korokke no Uta" (The Croquette Song). According to one Japanese-language blog, the song was first recorded in 1917 during the Taisho era with Taro Masuda（益田太郎）behind the lyrics while the composer remains unknown. Basically, it describes one man's loving but rueful admission that his wife gets nothing but croquettes for dinner. Yeah, I can understand...I do like my croquettes but variety is the spice of life, after all.

The above version is probably one that was recorded much later with singers Yasushi Suzuki and Mitsuharu Minamichi（鈴木やすし・南地みつ春）although I couldn't specify the year. Also, I'm not 100% sure of the proper pronunciation of the second person's family name and for that matter, for a person with a male first name, he sure sounds like a woman. Maybe someone better in the know than me can explain, although maybe the above version was performed by a different pair.

In October 1962, enka singer Midori Satsuki（五月みどり）released a single with the same title but it is actually a different song under the words and music by Kuranosuke Hamaguchi（浜口庫之助）. The arrangement is similarly whimsical but it goes a little more into an enka direction. The lyrics, though different, still talk about a couple and their oft-chosen meal of croquettes. However, the couple is definitely stated to be a newlywed pair so the new husband is more than accepting of his beloved's obsession with the dish.