"Exotic" foods

Having been a bit under the weather this week, I decided to tackle my homesickness by throwing money on it, splurging on some rare foods so that if nothing else at least my stomach would feel at home.

First, bread.

I cannot overemphasize the sheer unadulterated sucktitude of Japanese bread. It's like they've fundamentally misunderstood the concept. First off, there is no crust. Even if it looks crusty, that is a lie. It will be soft, squishy and awful. They'll serve MASSIVE thick slices, but the size is incredibly deceptive; the doughy white substance compresses to almost nothing at the slightest touch. Yet that is probably a public health requirement or something, because the small amount of solid matter that actually is there is made almost exclusively of butter. It tastes like nothing, contains nothing and will make you fat. BLERGH!

While I do like rice, my stomach grew up on BREAD goddamnit, DARK NUTRITIOUS FILLING HEALTHY DELICIOUS BREAD! With SALTY STUFF ON TOP.

And finally, finally,

Real, crusty, crumbly, rich, fragrant, delicious. Even though it did turn out to be kind of stale, my bread-starved digestive system was all appretiation. But wait, it gets better.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

I could hardly believe my eyes.

And my luck continued!

KOS!

Along with bread, cheese another thing Japan does with less than stellar expertise. Most of it is really weird - like an imitation cheese made by someone who only heard tales about the stuff from a drunk sailor*.

*who took out his foot and said "THAT. IT SMELLS LIKE THAT!"


But locating a familiar brand, I figured that heck, I can be French today. Let's cheese and wine this bread I found!


And since I still didn't feel like I'd blown my daily budget quite enough, I also got some smoked salmon.

Yuuuuuuuuum!

"So what is Norwegian culture?"
"Basically this picture."

Got home and dug my old and careworn yet still perfectly delicious brown cheese that I save for special occasions, and got ready to feast.

Viola*:

Violas never get enough attention.

Look at my face so happy!

Mmmmm fooood

Yes!

YUM!
But seriously, you have no idea how rare a simple meal like this is here.

Homesick-level: Reduced.

Happy-level: Increasing.

Feeling like such an obvious stranger wherever I go these days, it was really good to tangibly remind myself that there is a place where I do belong. Makes it easier to keep on not belonging. Beh-long. Be long. Blong. 

Go suck a cheese slicer!

GOODNIGHT!