Care package

A couple of weeks ago, Kity offered to send me a care package. I struggled for a while with what to put in it, and we eventually canned the prospect. We've been remarkably fortunate. We find quite a bit here and, what we don't, we can manage to stuff in our luggage on our few trips home. What doesn't fit into those two categories is missed, but we're almost home and can get it all in abundance.

We've brought back taco seasoning and learned that we can make pretty decent tortillas with a few hours on a weekend. Yeah, we miss more complicated Mexican food, but it's good enough for now. If we get really desperate, we can actually get an Old El Paso (I think) Taco Kit (complete with sticker translating the instructions into Japanese) at the store. This last trip, I couldn't find any Wolf brand chili so we haven't had a makeshift chili cheese burrito in a while.

Turns out, I can bake a decent lasagne in a convection oven. The pasta is imported, mostly from Italy. I can usually get some button mushrooms if I go to the right store. Black olives are pitted; green ones aren't - we don't buy green anymore.

Both of those require shredded cheese. Here, it's simply called "mixed cheese." I have no idea what it is. It's not mozzerella. It's not cheddar. It's not bad, but I certainly wouldn't call it good. I'll be glad for some variety when we get home.

Chrys makes really good cheese blintzes. It took tracking down a source of cottage cheese, but turns out that what I can get here is amazing and very easy to cook with. I'm guessing that the lack of baking in the home (and corresponding abundance of bakeries) means that ingredients shouldn't require mixers - quite nice.

Spaghetti is no problem. I prefer to make my own sauce for that as the others are in small jars or local (very sweet). Turns out, I can make decent meatballs, too. What Chrys wouldn't give for an italian sausage, though.

Deli meats don't really exist - I can get ham and salami. Nor does much beyond white bread, though it's REALLY good white bread. I can occasionally find a loaf of wheat, but not reliably. Chrys wants some rye, corned beef/pastrami, and a can of saurkraut.

Alcohol...is horrible. I bought a local brand of white wine and it was insanely sweet. I tried a bottle of red and it was so dry that my lips puckered. We caved last night and bought a bottle of Gallo Chardonnay - we've stooped that low. I bought Chrys a bottle of local rum - it was strong and not in a good way. We used it as wound cleaner or in splashes in Coke so you couldn't really taste it. When we came back this last time, we splurged in the Duty Free and came back with a bottle of Bacardi - ahhh.

I can get donuts. They were really good at first. I didn't know how I'd go back and not miss them. These days, they're getting old. Same goes for McDonald's - it's better here, but I'll be done with it by December.

The store down the street started carrying bagels a few months ago. They even have cream cheese. They're not bad, but they're just not the same for some reason. They come in plain, blueberry and (really, really cinamonny) cinnamon raisin. We're looking forward to some variety in those and the cream cheese flavors.

I can get Oreos and Coke at the store and they're really better here, anyway. I'll stash what I can in a box for the movers. Ditto Pocky and various other Japanese snacks, i.e., Pretz, sesame crackers.

I'm rationing the butterfingers that a friend at work brought for me. We're working our way through the last of our Code Red. I brought back some chocolate chips (since the one thing they don't seem to bake is cookies), but have yet to do anything with them.

Now...here's the meat of it. I'll bring back Pocky. If I can, I'll stash some Oreos and Coke in my luggage, too. The first person that shows up with a chili cheese burrito and a hot Krispy Kreme original gets half the Pocky. The other half goes to the person that brings a good bottle of red wine (Merlot?) and a block of sharp cheddar. (Alternate trades can be negotiated if, for some reason, the idea of a chocolate coated bread stick doesn't appeal to you. If that's the case, I will postpone judgement on your sanity because I'm really desperate for the CCB. I have a fun one in mind for Kity, especially.) Anyone? Anyone?