And your body too! Merrily… ?

意匠惨憺
i.shou.san.tan

Literally: mind – artisan – harsh – calm

Alternately: Doing one’s utmost in an act of creation (especially artistic creation) or design; painstaking attention to detail and agonizing effort for the purpose of devising something good, or to come up with a good way to get something done.

Notes: This is a compound of compounds; 意匠 refers to “design,” while 惨憺, despite the base meaning of its second character, refers to a truly awful situation – or to “taking pains” in a course of action.

憺 may be replaced by related character 澹 without any change in pronunciation or meaning.

As the rare and complicated kanji usage might suggest, this comes from the Chinese literary tradition – specifically from the writings of our friend, Tang-era poet Du Fu (Japanese 杜甫 = To Ho).

You don’t have to like the food, but you do have to appreciate the amount of thought that has gone into its presentation