More food for thought
...written on 06.25.02, @ 11:55 a.m.
Tue June 25, 2002
This not being able to read things has got to STOP! I told you the other day about trying to decipher whether or not a video was in English with Japanese subtitles. I mean, that kind of a mistake wouldn't be so bad and like I said, I have indeed lived through it once, but the incident the other night when Brian was over was a little more dangerous.
We were happily gabbing in my tatami room for what was going on 5 hours, when I began to blink rapidly to try and moisten my contacts. I used to wear these disposables to bed in the US for a couple of days even, but the ones I get here in Japan definitely have a 12 hour time limit. Pass that and they become crinkly onion skins on your eyeballs.
So, I excused myself to find the bottle of cleaning solution that I bought the other day with a little vial of rewetting drops attached. I unscrewed the vial, leaned back and let a drop loose.
"Oh my God! It's burning!" I screamed as I lunged to the kitchen sink to flush out my eye. Brian looked understandably concerned as I attended to my occular emergency. Turns out it was enzyme cleaner in that tiny bottle, which was duly noted in katakana on the small box, but I had overlooked that little detail in my haste for some relief.
And then, last night as I was fixing mashed potatoes for supper, I wondered what to make to accompany it and grabbed a can of pinto beans with jalapenos. That's what the picture looked like anyway.
Imagine my surprise when I opened the can to find that the beans inside were refried beans and not the plump and juicy kind. Disappointing, very disappointing. I mean, I really wanted something to sink my teeth into and now I had two creamy, mushy side dishes.
So I did what any self respecting fan of Richard Dreyfuss in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" would have done. I took the mashed potatoes and the refried beans, put them side by side on a plate and carved a yin-yang symbol out of them! I topped off my lovely edible taoist creation with green onions, salsa and cheese and promptly chowed down!
I had some mashed potatoes and refried beans left over, so I gently blended them together. Chocolate and vanilla ice cream swirl, anyone?