More about Food...

How is it that I've moved to a place where the regional speciality is fried octopus balls? Not only are they everywhere on the street, but there are special appliances (like sandwich grills) so that should you have a craving for one and not be near one of the plethora of street vendors you can make them in the comfort of your very own home. Fortunately, I won't need buy such an appliance as there's a guy who sells them out of the back of his van on my street corner every night.


Bread- I love bread but until recently have not eaten a lot of it, except for the odd craving (and in grilled cheese sandwiches). At school I eat with my students so the easiest thing to bring is sandwiches. When I started school I set off to my local grocery to find bread. I could find white bread and raisin bread, but no brown bread. Not to mention the white bread was texas toast thick, no thin sliced. So I went to the larger, more international grocery. Again thick white bread, and yes one choice of brown bread but texas toast thick. Looking again at the local grocery I did find thin sliced bread- thin sliced, white bread with the crusts already cut off, 10 pieces. Oh, I should mention that the aforementioned thick white bread is sold in bags of 1, 3, 5 with no heal. No chance of getting a full loaf. I searched high and low for brown bread- in speciality bakeries, in the very high end department store food departments, to no avail. Finally, I found a bakery that does a very light brown bread and they sell it by the slice. They have a massive loaf which you pick up off the shelf and take to the staff and say how many slices you want. Well they almost fell out of their trees when I said I wanted the whole loaf. Yes, 10 slices for 5 days worth of sandwiches. They got over their shock though and I had great sandwiches with thin sliced brown bread. Well you should have seen them the next week when I asked for 20 slices of brown bread (such a find was this bread that I was buying a week's worth of sandwich bread for myself and another new teacher).

Don't even get me started on my search for cheddar cheese...

One more food rant and I think I'll have gotten this out of my system: food packaging. Foods that are found in both North America and Japan are packaged differently. Everything here is a package within a package within a package. Crackers are packaged in long sleeves within a box in NA are packaged two by two in plastic here; some apples come wrapped individually in saran or in plastic trays; the largest box of cereal that you can buy here in a regular grocery is the smallest box that you would be able to buy at in NA. Not only is it frustrating- small packages and all that but it's a such a waste. Recycling of plastic packaging is not common, our area is part of a trial area for recycling of plastic packaging but most areas don't have this service. Their option for recycling all this packaging (not to mention carrier bags)is to collect wash and take the packaging back to the grocery store. So much must end up in the garbage. Just thinking about all the plastic I've accumulated since moving and I'm lucky enough to be able to put it out. There is only one, regular sized garbage bin, at the store to collect the packaging- in an area filled with multi family dwellings there is no way even the majority of families are recycling. If product packaging could be cut down just think of how much less packaging would end up in the garbage...

Ah, that felt good to get off my chest. On to happier things now.