prasantrin

Oops. I couldn't get oil-marinated olives, so I bought green ones, but I couldn't bring myself to use them. I live in Japan, and have never seen an olive bar here. Olives aren't very popular (an understatement, I think). I found some salt-packed olives in a jar, and thought they would be better than the flavourless canned ones. Does anyone know if they should be rinsed first? The jar doesn't mention it (though the info is in Italian and Japanese, but I think I read it correctly), but I thought I'd ask. hathor--what I wouldn't do to be you and pick my own olives! What did you end up doing with them?

How can you not like sans rival!?!?!??!?!?! Nutty and buttery are what make it delicious! I actually dislike Golidlocks a lot. We went the last time I was in the Phil, and I'm quite sure they used margarine in their sans rival. What's up with that? And most of their polovoron are also made with margarine. Heathens! I'll look for Mary Grace. I'm planning an ensaimada taste test, so I need all I can get! I want to find that fudge cake. I bet DCF must have something about it. Off I go to look!

Another topic on pastry shops in Japan can be found here. Just to clarify--you want Japanese shops that offer French or Japanese-style pastries and chocolates, but not necessary French or European shops? Laduree, for example, has a tea shop in Tokyo, but it may not be something you're interested in. There's a French-style Japanese pastry shop called Henri Charpentier that I quite like. They have a tea shop in Ginza that you can try. Morozoff and Goncharoff are two old-time chocolate (and cake) shops. Morozoff doesn't have a shop in Tokyo, but Goncharoff does. I'm not quite sure where it is, though. Depachikas (the basement floor of department stores) are great places to browse for different Japanese chocolates and cakes. Mary's is another famous chocolate shop that has branches in almost every depachika I've ever been in. I don't particularly care for their chocolates, but they're well-regarded by others. There really are too many places to list, but starting with a department store depachika (like Isetan Dept. Store or Takashimaya) would be easiest. If you're interested at all in Japanese-style snacks, my favourite sweet snack is called "karinto". It's basically fried dough (hard) that has been coated in a brown sugar syrup. I've always wanted to visit Kagetsu http://www.karintou-kagetsu.com/tenpo/index.html which is supposed to have really great karinto. I've been told it's in an area that's great for walking around, and it's near a relatively famous shrine (???), so it might be a good place just for browsing.

Day 4 Dinner We caught the bus back to KL and I was wiped! I thought I was starting to get sick, or maybe I was just tired. But no matter. This evening was the meal we were most looking forward to—dinner with some KL eGers! After seeing all those pictures of KL-based eG get-togethers from years past, I knew we’d be shown some good food. My mother and I met Tepee at one of the LRT stations, and we drove somewhere far. Maybe not far, but since we hadn’t seen much of the city, it seemed far. My mother and I didn’t know where we were going, but I knew the KL contingent knew how to eat, so I just went along for the ride to. . . Fatty Crab! What a great name for a restaurant. And guess what they serve? Crab! And some other stuff, too, but definitely crab. While we waited for the others to arrive, we had some satay to start—chicken and beef this time. I love beef satay. It was good! The beef was tender, and both were moist, not dry. During our travels around Asia, it seemed the meat we got was almost always dry, but these were perfect. I think I preferred the peanut sauce from the night before, but my mother preferred Fatty Crab’s. The little stand had chunkier sauce, and I like chunky. Shortly after the satay arrived, so did boo_licious! She doesn’t participate in eG, but she knows a lot about food and she writes for a local food magazine. She also has a fabulous blog called masak-masak. If you’re planning on a trip to KL, masak-masak and Eating Asia are two great blogs to help you get your food planning done (and hopefully you’ll have a car, so you can get to all those great places). And then Shiewie arrived, too! She also knows a lot about food. What is it about Malaysia that makes everyone so knowledgeable about food? This was my favourite dish. I love chicken wings, but rarely get to eat them. They weren’t just ordinary grilled chicken wings, but they had a wonderful flavour. My mother still talks about these, too. She keeps asking me what was in them. I just remember they were grilled! Were they fried before being grilled? I have a vague memory of a wok full of oil, but that might have been from somewhere else (this is one of the reasons you shouldn’t wait too long before posting about your meals—you tend to forget important details). The fried rice. I can’t remember much about it. It was a little salty, like salted fish and chicken fried rice (my favourite kind of fried rice in the world. One can never get too much salted fish!). And of course we had crab! This was sour and spicy crab. Or something like that. It came with toast with which you could mop up the sauce. I’d have liked to spoon the sauce on some freshly cooked white rice. It was just spicy enough to make your nose run a little, but not so much to obscure the flavour of the crab. My mother keeps talking about the sauce, too. (We talk a lot about food in my family, in case you hadn’t noticed.) She wants to try to recreate it, which really means she wants me to try to recreate it. Steamed crab was my favourite, though. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture until there was just a wee half left! I’m a simple girl at heart, and I loved how the sweetness of the crab meat really came through. Plum pudding! OK, this wasn’t on the restaurant menu, but Tepee graciously shared some of her Christmas bounty that came all the way from England from another eGer! Oh my gosh, this was rich! The only plum pudding I remember having was Walker’s, and I thought it was pretty good. But now that I know what plum pudding can be, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to eat Walker’s again. Tepee made brandy butter to go with it, too. Butter makes everything better! After dinner, we walked down to a Filipino bakery, but it was closed. Too bad, because I wanted to see what they had. Filipino bakeries are almost always really good. We dropped in another bakery which was just about to close, and I picked up some pineapple cookies. They looked like little sausage rolls that were filled with pineapple jam. They were a big hit with the office, and were one of the first New Year’s gifts eaten up! Shiewie and boo_licious were kind enough to drive my mother and me back to the hotel, and they took us a on a little tour, too! Who knew there was a little foodie haven right behind the Maya Hotel? We certainly didn’t, and it was most unfortunate because instead of eating at food courts, we could have been eating really good food right behind our hotel! I can’t remember what the area was called, but it’s an old area where the property owners have, at least for the meantime, resisted selling out to the big developers. There was a hotel in the immediate area (or was it a little shopping mall?), but not much else in terms of skyscrapers like the rest of KL has. Of course, those were just a stone’s thrown away, but it seemed to have retained some of the character of what KL must have been like before all the development. And at night there were a lot of fruits and vegetables for sale, and I wanted to buy some plantains to sneak into Japan, but I’m a bit of a chicken so I didn’t. I should have, though, because as usual, customs in Japan more or less waived me through! Anyway, had my mother not been so tired, we’d have enjoyed walking around more, but she can only walk so much in a day. Mom’s last meal in Malaysia was on the bus back to Singapore. What was it? Leftover plum pudding with brandy butter! She really relished that plum pudding, and didn’t even want to share it with me (remember, she doesn’t share what she loves). But unlucky her and lucky me, she forgot to bring the last little bit back to the Philippines with her, so I got the rest! Ha! I told her it was her karma for being greedy. . . We had a great time with the KL contingent, and I wish we could have spent more time with them. I know it was a busy time for everyone, but I am so thankful Tepee, boo_licious, and Shiewie were able to meet up with us. I hope we can meet up again, and I hope the other KL locals can come, too (some were held up at work). We will most definitely be back in Malaysia one day. We had just a little taste not knowing what to expect, but now I want to rent a car and drive all around the country. Imagine the food I could eat! Oh, the only thing my mother and I could bring along with us to share was some special candy my mother’s fourth cousin makes called “Turron de Pili”. Pili is a type of nut, and the candy is sort of like a soft toffee or dulce de leche. Tepee might try to replicate it one day, and it’s a good thing we shared it with someone as skillful as she is, because my mother’s cousin passed away a couple of weeks ago. That means no more Turron de Pili! The pressure is on, Tepee! I still have one box left—should I send it to you for comparison’s sake?

Not necessarily. I have some frozen wild blueberries from Costco and they don't have any sugar in them at all. They're from Rader Farms if you feel like searching for some in your area.

You're telling me! Plus because my oven is a gas oven, its usage not only increases my electric bill, but also my gas bill! I haven't baked nearly as much this year because of that (though my gas bill is still high because I forget to turn off the hot water heater quite often).

I'm going to the Philippines next month. Think you'll be done London and Bangkok before I can finish Cambodia and the Philippines? You'll have about a one month headstart!

I can just see my mother squinting at me and saying, "Who?" Mel Torme, however, and it just may work! Day 4--our last full day! We once again woke up bright and early to catch a bus. The day before we had made a last minute decision to go to Malacca/Melaka for a few hours, so we bought our bus tickets when we were in Chinatown. No luxury bus this time, but just a regular intercity bus. It was only a two-hour bus ride, though, so no matter that our seats were broken. . As soon as we arrived we tried to get a taxi. According to the little booklet we got from the tourist agency in KL, it’s about MYR10 per ride or MYR30/hour. Prices have gone up a little, because we were quoted MYR35/hour. We tried to bargain the driver down a little since we wanted the taxi for two hours, but no such luck. Tourists in Melaka really have few options in terms of transportation, especially when coming from the bus station, but it was only MYR5, so no big deal. Our first stop was the Tung Fang Food Court. I read about the Melaka-style curry laksa there on Eating Asia, the fabulous blog of very occasional eG poster ecr, and I really wanted to try it. We arrived around 9:30 am (or maybe it was 10:30—I can’t remember so well now), and they were sold out! I have no luck at all! So I settled for the chee cheung fan, which was the other reason I wanted to come to Melaka. I ordered the char siu cheung fan and it was amazing. The noodles were so soft and tender, but not mushy at all. They make them fresh with ever order, and although I didn’t get any pictures of the process, you can see them at the link above. This was really the perfect char siu cheung fan—I’ve never had any better (not even in Hong Kong, but I haven’t searched for the best cscf in HK, yet). I can’t remember what my mother had, but I think she had the wonton mee. I forgot to take pictures of it, because I was too busy talking to the couple at the table with us. They agreed that we made the right choice to come all the way to Melaka to have the cheung fan, but it was too bad we weren’t spending the night, because weekend evenings are when the action happens. Oh well. My mother wanted to do at least a little sight-seeing, so I didn’t get to try any cendol or Chinese chicken rice balls, or anything else that was supposed to be good in Melaka. And because we took the bus rather than rent a car and driver, I didn’t get to try the number one reason I wanted to go to Melaka i.e. the kuih keria which I know I would have loved. But I suppose it’s good to leave some good stuff for next time! We had to get back to KL early, so we took the 12:30 bus back. Like I said, it was a short trip, but I think with the char siu cheung fan, I got my money’s worth! We also got some goodies to go. Sardine pastry for my mother, and coconut bun for me. The sardine pastry uses puff pastry, and it gave me the idea to surprise my mother with some one day. I just have to figure out how to make the filling, or I could just use sardines in tomato sauce. I loved the coconut bun, and so did my mother. Unlike some people, I shared some of what I loved! And Melaka is famous for palm sugar, so we had to get some of that, too! That’s the palm sugar in the middle, and some dudol on the right. Dudol is coconut milk, palm sugar, and rice flour boiled down, I think. I didn’t get to try any, and my mother took it back to the Philippines with her. And on the left is not a product made from palm sugar, but it is made of sugar! Yes, it’s cotton candy! I know I can get cotton candy anywhere in the world, but this was really cheap! Like 25% or less of the cost of the same-sized bag in Japan! And it was goooooood! I’m almost done with Malaysia—just one more dinner, and it was the best one!

Day 3—New Year’s Day! We got up bright and early (easy to do, since we went to bed early, too) to catch the first Hop-on Hop-off bus of the day. I like Hop-on Hop-off buses, especially in places like KL where the interesting things are spread out all over the place. If you don’t have a car, these buses can be very useful. The only problem is that there is no set schedule. They say the run every 20-30 minutes, but actually, we had buses go by after just 10 or 15 minutes, which meant we missed a lot of buses. Oh well. At least we didn’t have to wait long till the next one! By the time we ended up at Central Market (a disappointing place marketed to tourists rather than a cool market like Chatachuk in BKK, which is what I thought it would be like), we were hungry. Really hungry. So we ended up at yet another food court. Mom went to a buffet-like place. You could choose any number of dishes and you paid by the piece or spoonful. She had a hard time choosing, and the poor guy had to follow her back and forth while she tried to decide between several dishes. I can’t remember everything she had, but the fried chicken, at just MYR2 was mine. And that fish only cost MYR1! It was so cheap, and I think that entire plate was only about MYR7 (US$1.95). Or maybe MYR10 (US$2.75). It’s too bad most of the food was cold, and if I remember correctly, something on the plate was quite tough. I had char kway teow from another place. Beef, I think it was. I could only manage to eat about half of it. The serving was too large for me, and it was only MYR5, I think. After finishing our KL tour, we rested a bit before going to Chinatown. We were supposed to go to Chinatown the night before, but we missed the shuttle (we were waiting on the first floor for the van, but it left from the lobby which was the second floor at the hotel. It was very annoying because the front desk told my mother it was leaving from the same place as the Gardens shuttle, which was the first floor! ). Upon arriving, we walked around for a bit looking for a place to eat. Our shuttle driver said, “Look for places with yellow tablecloths, but don’t eat at the red tablecloth places. They’re too expensive!” So we walked around, but couldn’t find any kind of tablecloth restaurants, at all! There were a lot of sidewalk stalls, though, and I would have been happy to eat at one of them. Unfortunately, my mother comes from a long line of germaphobic hypochondriacs, and she would have none of that. What’s the point of eating in Asia if you don’t get to try some of the street food? I wish my dad had been there, because he would have been all for it! We walked across the big street to see if we could find some restaurants on the other side, but all we found was a mall or department store which had a food court and some shops that were closed. “Let’s just eat here,” my mother said. I did not want to eat at yet another food court, so I said, “Fine then! Why don’t we just go to McDonald’s! Or Kenny Rogers!” We crossed the street again, and it was a good thing we did because we came across this man. My mother stopped and said, “OK, let’s eat here.” I couldn’t believe my ears, but I had to take advantage before she changed her mind, so we ordered some beef satay. “No beef, only chicken.” They were out of beef satay, so we had 6 sticks of chicken satay. “For here or take away?” My mother said take away, so our satay came in this little plastic bag complete with sauce at the bottom. Mmmmm. . . doesn’t that look good? Although my mother had insisted on take away, we sat down at a table to eat our satay. Odd, isn’t it? But as I was sitting there, I looked at my mother and said, “I know why you were willing to eat here. It’s because the satay was freshly grilled, so you knew all the germs would have been killed.” She gave me a dirty look, but she didn’t deny it, so I knew I was right. That’s also the reason she chose take away—the plastic bag, in her opinion, would have had fewer germs than a plate washed in who-knows-what water. Oh well, at least I got a little bit of street food, and it was really good street food, too! The couple who ran the stall were very sweet, and the man even basted the satay so I could get a more exciting picture. We also had our last coconut of the trip, no ice, of course, because who knows where the ice had been? I wanted to try the Kickapoo Joy Juice, but didn’t. I had always thought it was an imaginary drink from the L’il Abner comics, but I guess it’s not! And so ends Day 3. We had to get up early the next morning, so we went back to our hotel and went straight to bed!

Day 2 continued After our lunch, we rushed down to the basement of the Gardens to get a treat. Someone on another board mentioned I should try Homi's Chicken Curry Puffs as part of my curry puff quest. Unfortunately, they only have chicken curry puffs (hence the name), and no potato or even sardine! Oh well. We got a couple to go. They were fresh out the fryer, but we were too full to eat them right away, so we waited until we were back at the hotel. The crust was perfectly flaky, and was the type I was looking for. In terms of crust alone, this was probably the best one. Judging from the colour of the oil pooling at the bottom of the bag, however, they really needed to change the oil in their fryer. The puff was sooooo greasy! The crust was good, but the filling was too cumin-y, and I'd rather have had plain potato. We weren't very hungry later, so we walked over to Suria to the food court. Food courts are generally much better in Asia than in North America, and there were plenty of options to choose from. One place (no picture) even had huge lobster-like crustaceans for only RM30! My mother chose this place, which had one of the longest lines: And she had something but I can't remember what it was. Nasi Lemak, maybe? I remember it was chicken, but that's it. She said it was good, but the chicken was dry. I just nibbled on the dried fish and peanuts with some rice, because I really wasn't very hungry. On our way back to the hotel, we stumbled upon some sidewalk vendors. We saw all sorts of things (grilled corn, some kind of seafood, etc.), but only the juice stand picture came out. We didn't try any of them, unfortunately. We just went back to the hotel, had a few snacks at the lounge, admired our view of the city, then went to bed. Yes, we had a boring NYE, but we were tired!

Your guess is as good as mine! Lucy Vanel wrote on her blog: and Wiki says: My mother said it just seemed like ordinary shrimp to her. I wouldn't know because, as I mentioned, I didn't get any of it! Even though I hinted!

Ooooh!!! Rather than give Peter a helping hand, I must take advantage of his misfortune! Day 2--lunch We didn't know what we wanted to do on December 31st since, as I mentioned, we had pretty much nothing except for one dinner planned for the KL-leg of our trip. Piglet had mentioned Sage at the Gardens Residences, and Julian dined there shortly before we did, but when I mapped it, it seemed quite far from where we were staying. But wouldn’t you know it, there was a shuttle bus from various hotels to the Gardens! What luck! We arrived promptly for our reservations at one, and were seated in a very spacious dining room. It was very Japanese to my eyes—clean and uncluttered, but comfortable. They have a partially open kitchen. I think there were at least three people in the open part, and who knows how many in the back. When we arrived, there was only one other couple in the room. One more couple arrived shortly after we did, and one group of four arrived shortly after them. It was a big room for so few people. This led to a larger amount of attention from the waitstaff (I think there were three or four) than we prefer, but I suppose too much attention is better than not enough. We were told that they had just begun serving lunch at the beginning of December, and although they were doing well at dinnertime, lunchtime was less than busy. I liked that the water bottle matched the gerbera daisies on the table. You can order à la carte, or choose one of their set menus which merely allows you to choose courses from the a la carte menu for a slightly better price. We had the Sage. While I like having choices, I almost felt there were too many choices on the menu. For set menus, I prefer having more limited options. I like ordering and just being served whatever they want to make me but only because I’m hopeless at making decisions (as is my mother). And since there were so many staff members for so few patrons, I felt the added pressure of having our server standing next to my table waiting for me to decide. We sent them away after it was clear we needed more time, but I could still see them hovering. Or perhaps rather than “hovering”, I should say “waiting anxiously to assist us”? Once we had placed our order, we were given the same salty fried garlic-laden bread Julian had. I’m not sure why they gave us little dishes of balsamic vinegar and olive oil in which to dip the bread, since you couldn’t taste the olive oil or the balsamic through all the garlic. But we liked it. We liked it so much, that when they asked if we wanted more, my mother said, “Yes! Of course!” I balked, since I knew we’d have trouble eating the rest of our meal if we filled up on bread, but I managed to eat my share of the second serving, too. My mother started with the Carpaccio of Wagyu with Sesame Vinaigrette and Asparagus. Both she and I enjoyed this (carpaccio with sesame—I’m doing that at home!) I had originally ordered the same Feuillete of Anago with Foie Gras and Duxelles that Julian had, but when I ordered my main, I was told it, too, would contain foie, so I might want to order something else for my appetizer. I had the Casareccia Pasta with Lamb Shank and Edamame instead. When it was set in front of me, I was a mite bit disappointed. It looked rather blah, I thought. It was actually quite tasty, however. The lamb was tender, and the pasta was perfectly cooked. Sometime during this period, we finished the fried garlic bread, and we were offered some sesame bread (or was it seed bread?) fresh from the oven. I started to say no, but my mother butt in with an enthusiastic, “OK!” The server said he would just bring us a couple of slices to try, but when he returned to the table, he had also included the heel! I love the heel! He said he gave to us because it was the best part, and he was right. The sesame bread was a much better pairing with the food, and I wish they had prepared it earlier. For her main, my mother had Pan Seared Hokkaido Scallop with Civet of Crayfish. I don’t know how it tasted, because despite my hints (“Wow! Look at that scallop! I wonder what it tastes like!”) I did not get even a smidgen of it. I think that meant she really enjoyed it, because otherwise she would have shared some of it (my mother usually shares her food unless it’s something she really really likes). And I had Confit of Muscovy Duck Leg with Sautéed Scallions. Like Julian said, there was no mention on the menu of the inclusion of foie in this dish, but I was fortunate (I guess) to have a hovering server anxious for me to have a great experience, so she mentioned it. Or perhaps they had heard complaints about people being foied out from over-ordering dishes with foie? Regardless, I thought the dish was well done. The duck was moist, and the foie, though a little limp and a bit stringy, was fine. My only complaint was that the dish was, for my taste buds, a bit too salty. Actually, I found most of the food at Sage to be a tad heavy on the salt, but my mother did not share that opinion. Almond Blanc Manges [sic] with Mango Sorbet and Passion Fruit. My mother’s dessert. I don’t really remember it, but I liked the almond tuile. What little I was allowed of it, anyway. And onsen tamago! No, it’s still the blanc mange, but it does look like onsen tamago, doesn’t it? Ricotta Soufflé served with Espresso Sorbet. Mmmmmmm. I want to make this. It was the perfect dessert for me—light and only the slightest bit sweet. I remember trying to scrape the caramelised bits that stuck to the edges of the dish. Overall, I enjoyed my meal at Sage. I think the service needs some fine tuning, but nothing happened that would prevent my return in the future. And coming from Japan, the meal was an excellent value, I thought. I would be interested in hearing how Sage develops once Cilantro re-opens. We were told that many of the staff (both FOH and BOH) were from Cilantro and would be returning there upon its re-opening, which means the most experienced staff members will likely be leaving. I'm sure by that time, everyone should be well-trained enough to carry on, but one never knows!

Any shelters in your area?

Yay! I agree about ditching the roasts other than pot roasts. No matter how thinly you slice it, it still won't be as tender as something like a good fatty rib roast (which I'm sure they'd complain about, too). The popovers look good--did you taste one? I might need to try them when I'm home in the summer. And those desserts! Yum!

Japanese potatoes suck for frying. I've tried several types, and even the ones I've been told are good for frying don't yield the kind of results some of the NA varieties will yield.

Only because she's "pouring" it onto the cakes while still in the pan. Or maybe I'm taking that too literally. But I think if you've got a white/yellow cake, and you pour some pinkish reddish syrup (in the case of cassis) onto it, then you're going to end up with a white/yellow cake with pinkish reddish blotches. Plus it's coming from the bottom up, so when you turn the cake out of the pan, I envision the bottom being more pinkish reddish than the top. I just remember having slightly pinkish reddish tops of cakes in baking class when we brushed with that syrup, but it didn't really matter because they were covered with mousse. But with a bundt cake, if you're not going to be glazing, then you'll see everything.

I forgot before. . . I liked Maria's Cafe for breakfast. It's a bit out of the way, but her plantains (if you can get them) are quite good, and it's hard to get good plantains in Winnipeg. The owner is Colombian, so if you go at dinner you can get more of a taste of Colombian food. I've only been for breakfast and lunch, though, so I can't comment on the rest of the food. Next door or so to Maria's is a store specializing in Native American crafts and such. They sell the best wild rice I've had--much better than the stuff in Winnipeg.

Were the ones that weren't too hard good enough for you to want to make them again? I've never had fried satsumaimo, unless you count daigaku imo (but those aren't really comparable to a french fry kind of potato). I never buy satsumaimo, though, but if they're good fried, I'd try it!

Tepee--are the fried chicken wings similar to the Fatty Crab ones? I still think about them, and my mother still talks about them. She's on the look out for a recipe! (hint hint )

I hope we are Day 4.... ← You bet your bootie you are! (I hope that means what I think it does!) Hopefully I'll be able to get started tomorrow night, but if not, I think I'll get there by Friday! I forgot about lunch on Day 2. That was good, too, but not as good as Day 4. I'm still thinking about the chicken wings and the sauce from the crab! There's a little preview! (My pictures didn't turn out so well, though. They're a bit blurry from my one handed picture-taking!)

Technically still in the Orient, I've also been to Mediterranian Cruise Cafe (under the umbrella of "Middle Eastern". I can't remember where the owners are really from, but I think it's Lebanon). It was the first place I ever had toum, which I love. I've also been to Caspian Bistro, a Persian place. They've even got tahdig if you ask the right person (the night we went, we were first told they didn't have it, then we mentioned something about it to another staff member, and she told us some of the staff just say they don't have it because the kitchen doesn't want to make it). It was quite good. I've heard good things about Khyber Pass (Afghan), and one of the staff at Caspian Bistro told us to go to Emily's for Lebanese. It's also a place that's been on my list for years, but we haven't yet made it there.

At the junior high/high school I work at, lunch is from 12:35 to 1:20, though officially the bell rings at 1:10, and then they have 10 minutes to get their stuff put away and be ready for the next class (never happens, though, and they're sometimes still munching away when the next class starts). They also have a 15 minute break from 10:40 to 10:55 when they can eat. A lot of students eat at least part of their lunch then, because many commute long distances (2+ hours), and also many of them have lunchtime meetings for various committees, and they can't eat during those. If they miss recess and lunch, they can't eat until after their short homeroom ends (sometime after 3:00 pm). It can be a very long and hungry day for some of my students.

Judging from my experience frying Kita Akari potatoes, I doubt they were those. Maybe they were May Queens? Are your sweet potatoes satsumaimo, or did you manage to find some North American sweet potatoes? I'm always on the look out for those! I wonder how satsumaimo fries will turn out. For some reason, I thought sweet potatoes didn't need to be soaked for fries because the starch content is different than regular potatoes. Or something about them is different. Satsumaimo are so different from NA sweet potatoes, too, so definitely let us know how those turn out!

Julian--the restrooms were bad, but they weren't nearly as bad as your experience! Or as bad as the toilets on the Singapore immigration side upon our return. Those were really shameful! Pan--we never use our debit or credit cards to get cash. I can't because in Japan, you need to apply for a special account/card to use them overseas to get cash, and it's just too much of a pain in the butt. Plus I just prefer to use cash. I actually told my mother not to bother with travellers cheques, but she wanted to do things her way, and that's how we ended up at KFC (which I enjoyed, but I sort of felt it was a waste of a meal). PCL--I'll get there eventually! I've got grades due tomorrow, and I still haven't finished my marking, so I'm doing a big rush on that tonight. Then I'll be free for at least a week, so I can finish my entire trip! I hope! (Or at least I hope to finish before PG finishes his London trip ). I have to warn you, though, it doesn't get much better until Day 4!

It must be a regional/cultural thing. In Japan there is no such thing as "too perfect", and the most perfect-looking products will be out the door first. That's actually fine with me, since I like the cheese breads with oozy cheese that has crisped up like a tuile, but they don't, so those are usually left for me.