Text 2467, 102 rader
Skriven 2006-06-24 17:11:38 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
     Kommentar till en text av Glen Jamieson
Ärende: Re: CHICKEN 472 60619
=============================
*** Quoting Glen Jamieson from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

 CS> be 'lazy'.  I do something a bit odd in Japan, but many of the

GJ> Something like that, I think.  Years later I stayed with the ex-wife
GJ> (actually my sister-in-law) in Denmark, but I don't know how she
GJ> shopped there, as at that time she lived on a farm and happily grew
GJ> her own vegetables.

I miss having my little garden plot.  It wasnt much, very easy to tend due to
size, but I miss it.

 CS> lesser price.  He knows that the USA shoppers find this 'acceptable'
 CS> and it helps him out.  The Filipeno wives will do the same thing
 CS> sometimes but are a bit less prone to it as there isnt that much price
 CS> difference.  (anything really wilted just isnt put out for sale so this
 CS> isnt 'badly wilted' at all, just things that look like they have been
 CS> in your crisper for 2 days after purchase).  It's anything from 10% off
 CS> to 50% off. 

GJ> I haven't come across that, letting you pick out the wilted veggies.

Oh he separates them out to a separate bin for this.  We dont pick them out
from the main bins.

GJ> bananas, apples, etc, and prices them at only 25 - 50% of full price.
GJ> I often get skin-marked or mis-shapen apples like that, which taste
GJ> just as good as the pretty ones.  People wanting to make tomato sauce
GJ> are very happy to snap up the squishier ones.

Same here.  I get things I plan to cook up to a soup base or perhaps puree
anyways (baked apples etc) and with them, it doesnt matter at all.  Most
popular knock-down picks for me are kangkoon and bok choy (not all my bok
choy, but a head or so at knock down suits).  I'll also pickup wilting green
onions for use in soup if I am making one that day.  Tomatoes here are worse
than USA supermarket ones so I stopped bothering to buy them at all unless
canned.  Correction, there is one stall that has them sporadically and they
are all awkward looking lumpy but have good flavor although the color and
looks are fairly off <g>.  I traded back a recipe for 'fried green tomatoes'
to them once and they have been trading back 'fusion japan' versions of that
which involve small amounts of seaweed and sesame seeds mixed with a Japan
chile powder blend and it's both amazingly close and yet delightfully
different.  It doesnt match well with a normal 'southern cooking' meal as the
spices are a bit off (seaweed mostly is what doesnt match) but it's delicious.
 I sometimes try her version with scrambled eggs as a side plate.

 CS> Those too!  I remember one of my first trips out in Japan.  Box of
 CS> what I thought were tissues (kleenex etc) turned out to be rubber bands
 <g>.  Fortunately we needed those too as we'd just moved here and it was a
 CS> household item we hadnt stocked yet.

GJ> Your reaction when opening the "dispensing" style box would have been
GJ> worth seeing!

It was probably a bit grumbly at the time but I can laugh about it now!

 CS> Charlotte and when I get back home months later, find it was too small
 CS> so off it goes. 

GJ> Yes, when kids grow in spurts it can catch you out.  I sometimes buy
GJ> things for grand-children, and have been told to buy for 2 years ahead
GJ> in age.  Then if it doesn't fit at the time, it will later.

True but with only the one, she gets a bit sad if i keep doing that and she
always has to wait so I aim for 'aboutright, perhaps a bit big' and sometimes
get it wrong.  Shoes are suddenly easy but will not remain so.  She is almost
dead on my foot size right now and can wear all my shoes.  When I go on sea
trips and hit a port, I now get her shoes.  I hedge my bets by getting things
I could aso enjoy wearing a bit, like her pink 'mi kitty' shoes (stole'em once
already) and a pair of patchwork quilt looking boots that in design are sortof
a cross with workboots and hiking boots, but in a rain proof plasticy look
with side zippers and false laces, ankle-high.  Really different and rather
cute and when Charlotte outgrows them, they are mine.  I have to wait for
those though as she loved them on first sight and wont let me borrow those
<g>.

 GJ> Hmmm.  Walking?  You are going to USA, remember?  You might find it a
 GJ> bit lonely being the only walkers on the street. (Unless I was there.)
 GJ>  

 CS> Ah but folks do walk and don and i always were more apt to do that
 CS> than most. It sort of depends on the area and in big cities, it's
 CS> fairly common. 

GJ> _Some_ big cities.  There are big differences between them, even in
GJ> the one state.  For example, in Texas San Antonio is a "walking" city,
GJ> but (apart from the downtown area where there is no choice) Houston is
GJ> a place where no one walks except from car park to the adjacent shops.
GJ> Some areas develop a reputation as being "not safe" for walking, and
GJ> as a result no one walks, and the empty streets reinforce that
GJ> reputation.  Often there are no footpaths, so walkers have to travel

Yes, I am familiar with that.  Virginia Beach is not a 'walking city' much so
we are the oddballs there.  San Diego was as many used the trolley to get
around so didnt have a car handy except if they had to drive to the nearest
trolley station.  NY city is also a walking city as is parts of the DC
'megopolis'.

                                       xxcarol

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