"The sentimental taste is cozy for the heroine in the town."
Well, today's title is courtesy of engrish.com, a site I haven't visited in a while, but remembered while grocery shopping today - you'll understand why in another paragraph or so. I love it when something is lost in translation. Like trying to sell a Chevy Nova in a Spanish-speaking country... or the Coke commercial in another country (I think it was China?) that used a word that might have meant "refreshes" but could also mean "raises your ancestors from the dead". Man, I'm giggling out loud just typing that one.
ANYWAYS! today has been interesting because I embarked on a cultural adventure. The other day I was thinking about getting ready to go back to school, and how I'll have to pack lunch again, and how I'm really sick of having rice every day. Wouldn't it be great, I mused, if I could pack a bunch of little things that could change every day instead of always eating brown rice with olive oil, spinach, and tuna? But where would I store such little things? I spend enough time already digging through our tupperware and the containers are always too big for the portions I want. If only there was a lunchbox composed of compartments...
Then I remembered
idadebeautreux writing a while back about bento! A small lunch box... that is adorable on the outside... and tasty on the inside... Sounds like a great idea! So I've spent the last few days looking up bento boxes online and am going to order one soon. This move also goes hand-in-hand with another idea I've wanted to try, which is more Japanese/Thai/Indian cooking. I looked up some great recipes online, and decided the best way to get said materials at a good price would be to go to the Super 88 Market at Packard's Corner.
What a trip. I just wandered around staring blankly at all sorts of brightly colored packages and bottles without having the slightest idea what kinds of products were inside. Every now and then there would be a package with English on it, and I would eagerly clutch at it, glean from the few precious words what was inside, and ascertain (or, probably more correctly, assume) what items near it were. Although I often felt like a fish out of water, I really liked shopping there. The produce is much cheaper than Stop & Shop, they have a greater variety of "exotic" fruits and vegetables (including many I had never heard of), and they sell chicken and pork that's in small, pre-sliced portions! I've been avoiding most meat besides fish because I hate buying a pack of chicken and having to cook up an entire breast at a time, even though it would take me a week or so to eat it. The Super 88 is also very gluten-free-friendly. There were whole aisles of rice noodles, and even crackers and cookies and cakes I CAN EAT!!!! Another thing that sort of amused me is that usually if something does have wheat in it, its name declares it: "Glutinous Fried Rice", "Curry Powder with Gluten".
The fish department smells a tad too strong, and there are some cuts of meat that tend to turn my stomach, but besides that, this place is pretty cool. Except they don't have vanilla ricemilk. Go figure.
Although I do not have a bento box yet, I decided to spend some of today fooling around with ingredients and packing my bento for tomorrow, since I have to be up early. My Wednesdays are tricky - I essentially have teaching in the morning, class all afternoon and evening, and jiu jitsu after class. I designed a bento to cover three meals. I'll eat Part I around 10:45 when the children eat lunch. Because it's so early, I decided to try omuraisu, which is kind of an omelet wrapped around fried rice. Mine is really simple because I didn't have any rice fried or meat to put into it, so I just seasoned an egg, fried it up, and put some rice in it before rolling it up. It smelled so good! There are apple wedges to go along with it. Part II will probably be eaten during break at my first class, around 2:30. This one is also simple, just baby carrots with hummus and a fruit salad with raisins, kiwis, and sliced apple. I'm hoping to eat Part III of my bento around 5:30, during break in my second class. I made aromatic brown rice using a recipe from www.cookingcute.com that uses cardamom seeds and cinnamon. For sides, I have spinach topped with salmon and steamed eggplant with olive oil. Hopefully all this will give me enough evergy to stay awake through all 6 hours of class and still have something left for jiu jitsu at 7.
Looking ahead, my bentos for Thursday and Friday will be relatively simple, especially since I have time to make them in the morning before class or work. Thursday I want to have fried rice with tofu and probably finish off the spinach with salmon. Friday I'm going to attempt to roll my own sushi, using all sorts of stuff that you probably shouldn't put in sushi - but hey, there will be rice and fish in some form wrapped in nori, so I'm saying it is sushi.
This is actually making me excited for lunch! Hehehe, just wait until I have a cute little bento box to carry it in...
ANYWAYS! today has been interesting because I embarked on a cultural adventure. The other day I was thinking about getting ready to go back to school, and how I'll have to pack lunch again, and how I'm really sick of having rice every day. Wouldn't it be great, I mused, if I could pack a bunch of little things that could change every day instead of always eating brown rice with olive oil, spinach, and tuna? But where would I store such little things? I spend enough time already digging through our tupperware and the containers are always too big for the portions I want. If only there was a lunchbox composed of compartments...
Then I remembered
idadebeautreux writing a while back about bento! A small lunch box... that is adorable on the outside... and tasty on the inside... Sounds like a great idea! So I've spent the last few days looking up bento boxes online and am going to order one soon. This move also goes hand-in-hand with another idea I've wanted to try, which is more Japanese/Thai/Indian cooking. I looked up some great recipes online, and decided the best way to get said materials at a good price would be to go to the Super 88 Market at Packard's Corner.
What a trip. I just wandered around staring blankly at all sorts of brightly colored packages and bottles without having the slightest idea what kinds of products were inside. Every now and then there would be a package with English on it, and I would eagerly clutch at it, glean from the few precious words what was inside, and ascertain (or, probably more correctly, assume) what items near it were. Although I often felt like a fish out of water, I really liked shopping there. The produce is much cheaper than Stop & Shop, they have a greater variety of "exotic" fruits and vegetables (including many I had never heard of), and they sell chicken and pork that's in small, pre-sliced portions! I've been avoiding most meat besides fish because I hate buying a pack of chicken and having to cook up an entire breast at a time, even though it would take me a week or so to eat it. The Super 88 is also very gluten-free-friendly. There were whole aisles of rice noodles, and even crackers and cookies and cakes I CAN EAT!!!! Another thing that sort of amused me is that usually if something does have wheat in it, its name declares it: "Glutinous Fried Rice", "Curry Powder with Gluten".
The fish department smells a tad too strong, and there are some cuts of meat that tend to turn my stomach, but besides that, this place is pretty cool. Except they don't have vanilla ricemilk. Go figure.
Although I do not have a bento box yet, I decided to spend some of today fooling around with ingredients and packing my bento for tomorrow, since I have to be up early. My Wednesdays are tricky - I essentially have teaching in the morning, class all afternoon and evening, and jiu jitsu after class. I designed a bento to cover three meals. I'll eat Part I around 10:45 when the children eat lunch. Because it's so early, I decided to try omuraisu, which is kind of an omelet wrapped around fried rice. Mine is really simple because I didn't have any rice fried or meat to put into it, so I just seasoned an egg, fried it up, and put some rice in it before rolling it up. It smelled so good! There are apple wedges to go along with it. Part II will probably be eaten during break at my first class, around 2:30. This one is also simple, just baby carrots with hummus and a fruit salad with raisins, kiwis, and sliced apple. I'm hoping to eat Part III of my bento around 5:30, during break in my second class. I made aromatic brown rice using a recipe from www.cookingcute.com that uses cardamom seeds and cinnamon. For sides, I have spinach topped with salmon and steamed eggplant with olive oil. Hopefully all this will give me enough evergy to stay awake through all 6 hours of class and still have something left for jiu jitsu at 7.
Looking ahead, my bentos for Thursday and Friday will be relatively simple, especially since I have time to make them in the morning before class or work. Thursday I want to have fried rice with tofu and probably finish off the spinach with salmon. Friday I'm going to attempt to roll my own sushi, using all sorts of stuff that you probably shouldn't put in sushi - but hey, there will be rice and fish in some form wrapped in nori, so I'm saying it is sushi.
This is actually making me excited for lunch! Hehehe, just wait until I have a cute little bento box to carry it in...