As expected, I didn’t do much over the
winter holidays—I shopped, cleaned, cooked, and stayed inside. Like I said, I
had work on Christmas day, and it didn’t feel very Christmasy. I did wear a
Santa hat and show the students a few pictures from my family Christmases, and
there was a gospel music concert (soloist with piano), so that was vaguely
Christmasy. Unexpectedly though, I missed the food of a Christmas in America.
School lunch was a traditional Japanese (or maybe Chinese) dish of wet rice,
seafood, and vegetables with very little flavor, and obviously I’m not very
keen on it. That evening I wanted to go climbing, so I ate a quick dinner (I
think it was some leftover fish and vegetables) and biked to the gym, which
turned out to be closed.
The next day was the last day of school, so
there were end of year parties in the evening for each of my schools. I had to
choose one of course, and I think I chose well. However, apparently at one of
the other parties there were quiz questions, one of which was something like, “What
was the sophisticated Japanese expression that Joshua famously used?” It was
amusing to hear about that. After the dinner party that I went to, almost half
of the attendees also went to karaoke together, so we were 17 people vigorously
singing karaoke in a room probably half as wide and twice as long as my bedroom
in America. It was the largest (Asian-style) karaoke group I’ve ever been a
part of. There was a long table in the middle of the room with snacks and
drinks, and due to our enthusiasm the drinks were spilled a few times and we
broke at least two glasses. But it was fun, and that was the most exciting part
of my vacation.
When traveling or living abroad, I think
the most interesting thing is learning about the cultural differences, and possibly
being influenced by them. Thinking about this, I considered how my food and
drink habits have changed because of visiting different countries. The first
foreign country I visited was England, where I was introduced to black currant.
They have black currant flavored starburst and other candy, which I thoroughly
enjoyed, and I ate the fresh fruit and jam frequently in Russia as well. It’s
near impossible to find in America though. I also was introduced to McVities’
digestive biscuits, which are kind of a chocolate covered whole grain cookie. They’re
sold in Japan too so I have them here occasionally.
In France my diet changed considerably
because I didn’t really want to cook meat, nor did I have the money for it. On
my second day I tried eating canned fish, and went from despising fish to
regarding it as a special treat. Here I also cooked quinoa regularly, and
started drinking lukewarm water as is typical there. Lentils are very cheap and
easy to make, so I ate a lot of those. I wanted to make sure I ate a decent
amount of fruit, so when oranges went on sale I incorporated them into my diet.
Until that point I couldn’t eat oranges because the skin was too difficult to
swallow, but economy made me overcome this. When I met up with the French
student who lived with us in America for a summer, he gave me some sausage,
which got me hooked. If I could have any food in the world right now, it’s
quite likely I would ask for Catalonian fuet, a type of Spanish sausage.
My lifestyle in Vietnam allowed me to eat
almost anything that I wanted, so I didn’t change as much as in other
countries. It was in Vietnam though that I discovered my favorite cuisine,
Indian curry. I was able to eat a lot of new fruits and vegetables too, like
mango, durian, and mangosteen, but these haven’t been available anywhere else
that I’ve lived. Well, mangoes are available in America, but it's difficult and expensive to find the same quality.
In Russia I started liking sour cream for
the first time, which there is called smetana, and I maintain that it’s far
superior to its American counterpart. They also have their version of cottage
cheese, the dry version of which is fairly tasty and much more preferable to
the wet style found in America (Russia has that kind too, though). One day at
work my boss offered me an apple, and it smelled and tasted so wonderful that I
was obsessed with apples for a couple of months afterward. In America I ate
apples, but only if they were cut up and given to me, so I didn’t like them too
much. After Russia though, I started eating them regularly. Russian cuisine
features a lot of salads (mayonnaise-based, not lettuce-based), so I was able to eat and enjoy
those for the first time there although they still aren’t a preferred dish.
Finally, in Japan it has been difficult to
use the recipes that were staples in the past. As far as beans go, chickpeas, adzuki beans, and soybeans are the only ones that are reasonably available, and I don't know any good recipes for the latter two. Fish is a lot
cheaper though, so I make seared salmon almost every week. In Japan they don’t
like to waste anything, so I’ve gotten used to eating the skin too. I have
school lunch every weekday, and the typical school lunch has rice, soup, a
salad, and a protein. I didn’t like soups before Japan, but I have them at
least four times a week so I’ve grown to like them. I’ve even gotten to the
point where over the winter break I craved soup.
There is probably more that I forgot, but
even this much is overindulgent, so I’ll stop here.
