良い塩梅 Plum Wine Recipes & "Mama Says" Idioms

In the show available on Netflix 深夜食道 Midnight Diner:Tokyo Stories Season 1 Episode6 梅干 about plum and plum wine, they say something that sounded like it was an idiom 「良い塩梅:いいあんばい」 like… “perfect salt amount for the perfect wine” sort of thing. Can anyone expound on this?

I believe it comes from 梅干し, not 梅酒. Something to the effect that not enough salt, the plum goes moldy while too much spoils the taste so a delicate/difficult balance.

Sort of related hi-native response

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Thanks so much! That’s the same gist I got. How would that be used in conversation?Hmm… Is it always referring to plum wine or is it an idiom? Are there any idioms that you hear that are interesting to you? If so, please share, I would be much obliged.

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I believe it can used when something is well balanced.

Here is a weblio entry I stole:

また、大振りの魚より小振りの方が 良い塩梅 に仕上がる。例文帳に追加
It turns out just right with small fish (rather) than (a) big a one.

The frequency of this one, I’m not sure…could be different on the generation, that is true in English too, so may ask a native before using. I posted an idiom/proverb deck on kitsun if interested on frequent idioms (though いい塩梅(あんば) isn’t in it :laughing:), there are a couple decks in the community actually. They are quite fun to learn, surprisingly common too even though it sounds exotic sometimes, lol.

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I agree! Idioms have so many unique history to the culture it comes from! Thanks for posting your deck. I’m sure I won’t be the only one who will heavily benefit from your insight!

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深夜食道??? No, no, no. It’s ”深夜食堂”!“食堂” means "diner. “食道” means “esophagus”. There’s a huge difference in meaning, although they pronounced the same.

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LOL. autocorrect. that’s what I meant. Thanks. Have you read 深夜食堂? Eventually I want to start reading them, but for now I just watch the show. The topic is Japanese Idioms. What are some that you like?

Ah, thank you, I did not know “深夜食堂” was originate from comic books. I only watched the series on Netflix. All the episodes are nice.
Hum… Japanese idiom, here are some I liked「 井の中の蛙大海を知らず」「 水に流す」「口は災いの元」「猫に小判」. They are short and meaningful. ^_*

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