26 09 2004
Alive and well! I've been lax with the updates recently, because
keeping this updated has fallen down on my list of priorities.
For the last month or so I've had my head in the books, studying when
I can. That's not to say that's all I've been doing, for between work,
the occasional outings and sleep, there's not a huge section of the
day left over. I've started studying at work when I have a bit of free
time, such as in my lunch break, and that allows me to get a bit more
done.
Recently I've realised that I've grown a little lazy, snacking on
unhealthy foods when I need some energy but probably just making
myself feel more tired in the process. When I first got here I lost
weight, but now I've started to put it back on again as I become more
familiar with all the evil delights this town has to offer, such as
the junk food in the nearby 7-11. I'm trying to cut down on the junk I
eat at home now, so I can feel justified when I go out and eat yummy
food with friends.
The photo is the early stages of a mushroom and capscicum kimchee. I
got a little curious about the relative healthiness of some of the
foods I was eating recently. Kimchee's actually really good for you
apparently. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's cabbage
pickled with lots of garlic and chilli sauce. It can be chucked into a
stir fry to turn whatever the stirfry was into a kimchee stirfry.
Originally from Korea, the Japanese call it kimuchi, though it sounds
more like kimchi. Not the ideal thing to eat if you plan to breathe on
anyone afterwards, but it does taste good.
I've also developed a fondness for umeboshi - sour pickled Japanese
plums that I mentioned as rather unpalatable in a previous entry. Best
described as a milder version of those sour warhead lollies we used to
have as kids, though one the latest packet I bought it reads
"tabeyasui", claiming it's easy to eat. I guess it's all relative.
A friend has previously pointed out my fondness for recounting
culinary adventures here. Well, this entry would not be complete
without the story of the "roku jyuu ni bai kare-".
I've previously mentioned the nice Indian restaurant in town. The
regular chef is Nepalese and he's good at what he does, though he
could be accused of being cautious when it comes to spicing up the
dishes - on account of the considerably sensitive Japanese palate.
The restaurant has a hotness scale from 1-50, with anything above 10
being rated as "extra hot". I'd tried a 50 and a 25 with a coworker
previously and it was difficult to distinguish between the two of
them. Even the hottest one was, while comfortably warming, not
terribly hot.
So OT and I went back about a week ago on a mission to test our
limits. We explained to the chef how 50 hadn't been enough last time,
and he nodded but looked reluctant. Eventually he said okay and he
prepared two curries, one a 50 (though perhaps a little closer to 50
than the last 50 had been), and the other "roku jyuu ni bai gurai" -
approximately a 62. I'm not sure how he's able to arrive at such a
number. Ot and I have our doubts as to the scientificness of it all.
Anyway, our curry came out after a while, along with the garlic nan
we'd ordered. The 62 curry was an interesting affair, so seemingly
laden with chilli power that it was viscous like quicksand. Both were
a dark blood red-brown.
The vamped up hotness proved a little uncomfortable for my dining
companion and when the chef came out to ask how it was, and offered to
de-spice one of them, OT gladly accepted.
I actually enjoyed the heat, but the abundance of spices unfortunately
turned a really delicious curry dish (we'd had it before) into
something rather bland. The Indian curry I've had in Australia managed
to sit at a similar level of spice yet do so in a yummier fashion - I
suspect with more chilli oil and less spices.
An adventure, none the less. I think I'll stick to a 50 from now on.
So, what else is new? Autumn finally broke, and within a day the
temperature seemingly dropped 10 degrees. There's still days where the
weather's beautiful and it's too hot, but it's amazing just how
quickly the weather changed. It's also started getting dark by about
7pm, which came as a surprise, since I've endured a combination of two
summers since leaving Australia at the tail end of one.
Life's good.