The things we live on and the things we don't

I have foolishly become accustomed to "barista level" oat milk in my coffee.  A small carton runs roughly 834 yen.  It could be a hedge against gold.  I have tried several times to "downsize" to generic "oto miruku" and simply cannot take it.  It's watery and tasteless and looks like regurgitated baby formula.  Some of you are probably thinking 'that pretty much describes all oatmilk.'  You clearly have never seen oto miruku in Japan.  The last thing I thought I would be is an oat milk snob.  IPA snob?  Sure.  I mean, who isn't?  

Unfortunately, the supply chain forced me to compromise.  The harsh reality is that the Nagoya grocers and convenie operators were wholly unprepared for the Douglasses and our eating habits.  I'm afraid we are a bit like locusts.  We descend on a store and pick one item and purchase all of that item and then we move on.  The first three weeks, it was dried mangos.  I would go in and buy six packages of the mangos and then go in the next day and buy the last three (it was too embarrassing to buy them all at once - plus, I'm backpacking those groceries home).  Eventually, we wiped the store out of mangos for several weeks.  We
then descended on the local Lawson convenie and proceeded to buy all of their dried mangos.  By the time both stores were able to restock mangos, our daughters decided they didn't really like mangos so much anymore and instead really really like english muffins.  "Why haven't you ever given these to us before?" Lily demanded as she mashed a stick of butter onto a muffin.  

Ultimately, both stores ended up with a massive amount of dried mangos and no english muffins.  And so it goes.  All of this to say, we wiped a different store out of our fancy barista level oat milk, so I'm drinking the local sub-par oat water.

This IPA helps lessen the sting.

As does this cappucino from Freak Coffee.

And a few more things that have sustained us here ...

Street pizza!  Margherita and Four Cheese with Honey.  Soooo good.

Poke bowl from Aloha Cafe.

Aloha Cafe has cleverly marketed this as "breakfast," presumably based upon the nutritional value of the flower.

The most nutritious thing here has to be the popsicle stick.

Ahhhh, Crunky.  Otherwise known as Nestle Crunch.

Yet another lucky find by Lily.  When it comes to sugar and white flour, she's the equivalent of a                   .

If that stays in the blog, you know the censors have stopped paying attention.  :)

Lily later said "daddy, did you censor truffle hog?"

Yes, yes I did.

This may be the one thing in Japan that is shaped like a fish and yet is completely fish free.  

Sugar and white flour filled with custard.

I think the rough translation is 'quick heart attack.'

Pre-fried tofu runs about 84 yen for a brick, which is a real bargain (unless you're Uncle Andy, when tofu can never be a bargain unless it is in the trash).

And now for the "don't" category.

The sushi cream cone, a rare failure of imagination from the fish industry.

This looks like something Hannibal Lector might serve as an entree, but it's actually compressed bean paste.  On second thought, maybe Lector would serve that.

"I ate his liver with some compressed bean paste and a nice Chianti."

Eh.  The line doesn't work because you want people to be horrified that Lector ate someone's liver, not that he ate compressed bean paste.

I believe this is squid but may also be a prop from Alien.  I haven't seen a cookbook that covers this sort of thing, but I'm hoping there's more to it than boiling.  Maybe pan seared with a bit of pepper?

Movie night!  Pass the crunchy fish and ranch dip.

If you can get around the image of eating something that is sticking out its tongue at you ... you'll find that you're eating compressed bean paste.  

So, really, who won?

Who could resist the temptation of chowing down on a cute kitten marshmallow?

A guy allergic to cats?

Anyone with a soul?

Why do we continue to anthropomorphize our food?  I mean, how would you describe the emotion in the eyes of those cats?  They don't exactly scream 'EAT ME!'

More like ... 'May I have some milk?  Why am I trapped in this bag?  Why are you looking at me like that?'

At a sushi restaurant facing off against this tentacle.  At the end of the meal, I (unsuccessfully) tried to hide it under the sauce.