Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I Miss Cooking...and Red Wine...

At home these two things usually occur simultaneously so because of that I think my longing is exponentially increased. In Japan I have a little burner thing to boil water and a microwave. I love going through my recipes (I have hundreds) and planning the next week or so of meals, grocery shopping for the ingredients and then putting it all together. When 5 or 6pm rolls around there is nothing like getting the day's ingredients out of the fridge, pouring myself a glass of wine and getting down to work. I miss the lists, the planning, the control (Tom has learned it is better to leave me be in our tiny kitchen when I am cooking), the experimenting...it is the engineer in me. I also like the variety and options...mexican, italian, chinese, comfort food...extra cheese for Tom, more garlic than the recipe calls for, etc. The food in Japan has been great but almost every meal here involves rice or some noodle...I am getting starched out! I looked online and 80% of Japanese people eat rice at least once daily...it is taking some getting used to.

Regarding the wine, I am coping. They have beer, sake and sho-cho (which I love!) to compensate. They are all good but I miss the familiarity of wine...red wine in particular. The 24-hour grocery store I visit regularly has a small wine section...the only brands I recognize are Yellow Tail and Carlo Rossi...I've yet to turn to either of them. Besides it is one thing to be at home cooking dinner for your hubby having a glass or two of wine and another thing to be sitting alone in your hotel room watching a Japanese game show chugging from the jug of Carlo Rossi...

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