Thursday, December 06, 2007

I Japan alot "miss"...

I was doing my regular grocery shopping today at Waitrose. To my surprise, they were having a Christmas celebration in the store. They had a choir singing Christmas carols, most of the staff weren't doing what they were usually doing - they were serving food and drinks to customers intead! Now, how unusual is that. Noticed the title is quite a misnomer to what I'm talking about here? In fact the title reflects a simple Japanese sentence structure. Quotation mark for miss because there really isn't such a word in Japanese. You'd know Japanese aren't a romantic bunch! Hahaha!!

So I was walking down the aisle in the store and in search of inspiration to cook for my meals next week. Then there were staff going around in trays offering food to customers. There was cheese. Different types of cheese. One peculiar type was called the "Llawnroc Brie". I thought it was Welsh since the name had a double "L". So I asked the "cheese specialist" at the desk and she said, "No, that's from Cornwall; try reading Llawnroc in reverse.", she explained with a smile.
"Ah! I see! That's very clever, isn't it!" I answered in Eureka excitement.

The lady laughed. Then she showed another one. "That's another one called the Yarg. And that's a very good cheese made by the Gray family. Yarg. Gray. Read it in reverse? Now you get it?"

Christmas pudding in single cream and mini mince pies
Another corner was the wine section. I tasted one glass because I am a person who turn red easily with alcohol. So, one was enough. Then the corner next to it was Christmas pudding in single cream and a tray of mini mince pies. Ah! Lovely! I tried all of them. I wanted to go for more but decided not to make myself a cheapskate.


Staff serving Japanese sushi

The weird sushi I was talking about

As I walked to the finger food section, there was a desk serving Japanese sushi, or what I thought was Japanese sushi because of the way they interpreted sushi to be. There were the normal type of sushi but they also had weird ones like rolled smoked salmon in cream, cheese and chives? That's not sushi! I have seen many types of sushi in Japan but what the heck was that?! Then when I tried it, it was really good! Hahaha! I ate lots of that. Yea, cheapskate!

Nigirizushi and Makizushi

I continued with the makizushi and nigirizushi to my heart's content. I liked them alot. Even though they didn't taste as nice as eating them fresh in Japan, it reminded me about eating the weird sushis in Japan. There were more people coming to the desk when I was standing there. A customer pointed her finger at the green thing wrapping the rice ball and asked the staff, "What's this green thing?"

The staff looked clueless but she tried to answer, "That's a.....ermm..."

Then I chipped in, "Nori..." and with a quick retrieval before I get a puzzled look, I swiftly continued, "...that's seaweed."

"Oh...alright. Lovely..." the customer took a piece and put it in her mouth.

"Thanks. You're hired. Now stand beside me and do the next explanation." the staff joked.

I laughed it off and left the desk to pay for my grocery. While exiting the store, I was smiling to myself..."Noriiii???!!! What the...."

I think I still...yea, I really think so....

1 comment:

Hirot said...

あなたは、日本が好きですか?