Simple Cabbage Salad

Are Virgos considered to be anal organizational freaks? I've never heard of that until recently when I came back to the US. Several people have pointed that out to me. Even at one job interview when I talked about how organized I was (I gave examples of how anal I was), they seemed impressed, and then asked, "wait, what sign are you?" When I responded that I was a Virgo, the interviewer said, "I knew it!" Apparently, he was a Virgo, too, so he claimed that he could tell. Hmmm.

I was also reading a random blog the other day, and came across some woman's blog that said, "my four year old daughter loves to help me fold laundry, but she doesn't fold like how I want, even after I repeatedly showed her how to do it my way. I want my dishcloth to be folded in thirds, not by halves!!! But it's nice of her, so I let her fold them, but when she's done, I re-fold all of them over again. I know, I'm anal, but I'm a Virgo, so what can I do?" What? You've got to be kidding me! That's anal! When I told this story to my wife, she laughed and said, "you used to do that to me all the time! You tried to teach me how to fold clothes, YOUR way." Did I? Hmmm, I don't recall. If there are any other Virgos out there that think they are anal, or not anal, please tell me.

So today, I'm going to show you something really really simple. As the name suggests, this salad is quite simple (maybe too simple for Virgos?)

IN JAPANESE: kyabetsu no shiomomi
CATEGORY: Side-dish, vegetarian
COOKING METHOD: Fresh
DIFFICULTY: Easy
SERVES: 2 people
LENGTH OF TIME: 3 min

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 fresh cabbage
1 tsp lemon juice
some salt
shiso leaves (optional)

HOW TO:
The hardest thing about making this salad is shaving the cabbage. If you have a whole cabbage, slice about quarter off. Then using a big knife, shave off as thin as possible. If you have a shredder, by all means, use it. If you are lucky enough to have some shiso leaves, slice that into tiny pieces.

Place the shredded cabbage (and shiso leaves) into a bowl, and pour about a tea spoon of lemon juice, and two to three shakes of salt on top. Mix well, and it's done!

When my dad makes this, he sometimes adds some sour apple pieces in it.