Adventures in Japan: Jessica's Kitchen Edition

こん日和！(That wasn't copied and pasted, kids...Impressed?)


Over the past couple of weeks, I've been attempting to branch out of my cracker/cheese and peanut butter/apple phase. Let the record show that I am not getting sick of this well-balanced diet of choice but rather, there are certain people who continue to "worry" about my well-being.

Looked like salad to me...

ANYway, I went out on a limb and bought an avocado, an onion and (what I thought was) pre-packaged salad. The picture on the bag did not suggest otherwise, so I went ahead and bought it. It is at this point that I will give credit where it's due: If you remember from many posts before, Patrick had given me a tour of the local grocery store and pointed out "buy this, not that". Well, this particular item was a "not that" kind of product. And here is reason #483749 why learning to read Japanese is a good idea.

It came with one of those
"do not eat" things....bad sign

My first clue should have been that the contents of the bag were dehydrated. Since when does salad come in that form? But I figured it was Japan...don't question it. The instructions on the back (while still in Japanese) were pretty clear from the pictures: soak the dehydrated lettuce-looking stuff for a few minutes in cold water and then it should bounce to life. Add toppings and dressing and voilà (not sure there's a Japanese equivalent)! You have salad. Seemed easy enough...

It's growiiiing...

Well things really went wrong at the "hydration stage". I left the kitchen to return to my skype phone call and when I returned a few minutes later to check on my creation, I was greeted with this rank stench. Of course it was coming from the bowl of "salad", which was looking a little over-moisturized. I was suspicious at this point (took me long enough, right?) so I stuck my hand in to get a feel for its texture. Um, gross. It was slimy and wet. Slimy and wet salad?! No. It turns out that it was seaweed! I bagged it up, threw it in the garbage and did a thorough wipe down of the kitchen counters in hopes of extinguishing all remnants of my mistake.

おいしいない

Between the smell and the texture, I temporarily lost my appetite.  It took me a couple of hours to get it back and when it did, what did I end up eating? Crackers, cheese, apples and peanut butter... 






Current *weird* craving: That really sugary icing that comes on store-bought cakes and cupcakes...why is that weird? Because I hate that kind of icing! Japan, what are you doing to my taste buds??