Gross Pictures

Yesterday, I confess I stayed in almost the whole day.

Well, I really needed it. I was so tired from the many stresses of the week and still really sick. So I just slept in, lay around, did laundry, looked at things on the internet, and folded origami shapes. Okay, I didn't actually do any work. I probably should have.

The little bat was still there when I woke up, so I got a couple pictures of him that are more detailed.



I also did a lot of talking on skype with Colin and--wonder upon wonders--my baby brother. He's been working hard at a dairy and subsisting on a snaily modem connection, so not only does he not read this blog but I never get to talk to him. However, he has a brief vacation, and I got to hear his voice! It made me very happy and also wistful.

Warning: this blog post contains a couple gross pictures. Probably you shouldn't look at it while eating or if feeling squeamish.

I had natto for lunch.

For anyone who doesn't know, that's fermented soybeans.

It's about as gross as you can get without getting into the animal products. I think it's much grosser than blackened eggs, though I like blackened eggs too. The thing about natto is, the more you stir it the stickier it gets. You're supposed to stir it a lot. When you lift some with your chopsticks, little strings string out like melted mozzarella. The texture when you put it in your mouth is distinctly slimy. I could say like okra, but truth be told it's sort of more like snot. And the taste--well, I think it tastes a little bit like coffee. But most people cite underarm sweat or worse. Let's just say it's hard to describe.

Don't ask me why I like natto enough to keep buying and eating it. The first time I had it, I thought it was absolutely foul. But somewhere along the way I acquired a taste for it, and now it makes a quick and convenient high-protein meal.

It was my last container of natto, though, so I had to venture out toward evening. I was planning to go to Carrefour first, but I ended up getting drawn into a bakery first, where I had a 7-inch veggie pizza. Pizza-eating here, by the way, is a very elegant activity. You get a separate plate, and knife and fork, as well as ketchup and Tabasco and (occasionally) mayonnaise. Also salt and pepper. None of these condiments did the pizza actually need. It was a perfectly respectable pan-pizza and didn't even have any objectionable veggies (like corn :P I hate corn on pizza). Just onions, peppers, olives, and mushrooms. The onions and peppers were especially fresh and good, better than you usually get. And the whole thing was just plain nice. My stomach must be shrinking, because a 7-inch pizza was fine for me.

Thus fortified, I braved the holiday crowds at Carrefour. One of my main errands was to finally get myself a better cooking pan. I picked out a quite decent non-stick heavy-bottomed frying pan. A whole $7. Also various other things. I found a lemon, and some orange slices for tea, as well as some hibiscus, which was really a good find. Doesn't hibiscus have vitamin C in it? In any case, it tastes nice. Managed to find some organic tofu too, and some Hall Vitamin C throat drops, which are great. The crowds were insane. There were a lot of special things for the holidays, including more turtles (sad….) and a whole big pile of dead plucked chickens... with their heads.



Well, you can't accuse Chinese people of being unwilling to look their food in the eye before they eat it! Actually, I thought the chickens were looking oddly reposeful, as if they had had a peaceful death. (Actually, I'm not sure how they do kill them and leave their heads intact like that. Maybe it was peaceful for all I know.) They were certainly more peaceful than the poor turtles, who were not being kept in any water and were drily stretching up their long long necks and looking about with great alertness and anxiety. Poor turtles. Sometimes it's hard being an omnivore.