Christeph: On the Lam

Winter is finally here, and how do I know? Because the fall foliage has been mercilessly ripped off all the trees by the wind in all but a few spots, and little white things are falling from the sky. It wasn’t snow, and I don’t think it was hail. Maybe ice pellets or snow grains? Or graupel perhaps? The weather was so violent last night, so unrelenting in its pelting of our tin roof with liquid and solid forms of water, that neither Chris or I could sleep successfully. Whatever magical substance fell from the sky, it was gone by morning. But it’s out there. And it’s coming. As my supervisor cautioned this morning: “Get your snow tires. And soon.”

Last Friday was our monthly meeting with the Guys from the Block. They asked us last month what our favorite Japanese food was, and delivered a breathtaking spread of sushi and tempura. And it was damn good. Pictorial evidence is here.

They asked us about “traditional” American food, a question for which I always at a loss. Um, food from everywhere else? Either that or McDonald’s and Pizza Hut, and who wants that as their culinary claim to fame? Before you can say “cheetos”, we are now preparing the vittles for next month. We’re either making mac n’cheese, or burgers. Or Thai noodles. Or grilled cheese w/ tomato soup. Or hamburgers. Or Mexican food. Or pizza. Or… ?

The question is, do we make them something we know they’ll like, or do we make them something totally strange they’d never eat in a million years? (hello, sun dried tomatoes with pesto and artichoke hearts. Yessss!!) I’ve had to eat enough funky stuff during my tenure here. I say turn about is fair play. Besides, our concoctions couldn’t possibly hold a disgusting candle to naka.

We’ve been making progress on the food front. Mexican food is notoriously absent in Japan, but thanks to our friend Britt who’s done this whole JET thing before, we made something approximating a tortilla. Accompanied with the suspiciously ripe and inexpensive avocados from Mexico that our grocery store somehow carries, we had tacos last night. Woo hoo! 100 yen for an avocado… isn’t that like 80 cents? I couldn’t get avocados that cheap when I was living next to Avocado Central. What the heck? My guess is it’s a simple supply-demand-Japanese people don’t really like avocados all that much-kind-of-deal.

The local bakery has also just started producing something called a “bagel”, which is similar in shape and function (but not quite taste or density) to the same lovable item back at home. Well slap cream cheese on it and call me Philly, it tastes good enough for me.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Ambiance, Festivals and Events, Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.