One of the disadvantages of living so far away from home (or calling more than one place home) is that there is always something to miss about the other place/s. Of course, the bright side is that there is always something to love about where you are. If you think about it, there is no down-side to having something to miss - you can't have rainbows without a few raindrops, after all. My first rainbow came out about an hour and fifteen minutes after I left the airport. The scents of the flowers were lightly carried on the morning breeze, letting me know as nothing else that I was back in the Islands, beloved (the Islands) and beloved (me - by my loved ones).
(Apologies if this post looks odd - I don't know what's wrong with it and I'm not tech savvy enough to be able to fix it. Hopefully whatever the bug is will have been worked out by the next post.)
Neither Pavlov nor his dogs...
Friends and family have held me responsible for their increased appetites and, occasionally, increased waists. Far be it from me to shirk my responsibility for serving the same purpose as Pavlov's bell to his dogs (yes, it is an unfortunate analogy but one which was suggested by one of my friends). I have been known to say that the most dangerous place is between a hungry Cooke and her food. There are variations on this theme but the result is that you can replace "Cooke" by practically anything or anyone and it is still accurate.Food is a huge part of our social scene here - I'm not sure if it's the Asian influence or if it's just because people come home for the holidays.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an Island girl/boy returning from time spent elsewhere is in want of local food to curb the cravings they have been experiencing, be it poke, sashimi, Zippy's (chili / saimin / insert your choice of food here), plate lunch, etc. etc. and a trip to a favorite local eatery tends to follow either immediately after leaving the airport or immediately after the shower immediately after leaving the airport.
My mission, which I had chosen to accept, is to eat everything while I am home. (Of course, the everything only includes the things I want to eat. You may not suggest snails or offal or anything else that might make you go "ew".)
As today had some patches of pouring rain (it is winter, after all) those of us who are temporarily between jobs (one of the girls and the boy at lunch - they start their new jobs next week and right after the New Year, respectively), having a day off (one of the other girls) and on vacation (that would be the girl pictured above) went for Vietnamese food. We got food envy from the table next to us - so three of us ordered the enormous noodle salad. And because I'm me, I ordered the Vietnamese coffee - chicory, bitter, sweetened by condensed milk in the cup before you pour the brew into the glass of ice.
Yes, the bowl was big. Yes, it was delicious. No, I did not manage to finish it all - I am out of shape, obviously - but the goal is to change that by the end of this trip.
Christmas Dinner - A preview of sorts...
Christmas will be a team effort - one of my brothers has a friend who was trained (very well trained) as a chef. She is currently injured so we have divvied up duties for Christmas dinner which somehow grew from the 7 originally envisaged to about 13 people. We'll see how it goes but the current menu has poke, sashimi, roast lamb (with jus), rosemary and sea salt potatoes, roasted vegetables, roasted garlic, chickpea and cauliflower curry (hey, don't knock it till you've tried it!), a big salad with home made vinaigrette and home made Caesar dressing, candied almonds (if I can be bothered to make them), a pumpkin and something-else puree...and people will bring starters and desserts. Something tells me there will be lots of food so we have requested that people bring their own containers to take it home. Tomorrow will be the test as we prep as much as possible before hand so that we don't spend all Christmas cooking. After all, I have a visit to pay to little children who will be eager to rip open their presents...
So until next time, merry Christmas and if you must have rain, I wish you lots of rainbows.
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