Tuesday

I've tried a lot of different things since I've been here. One of the first times I went to the grocery store, I wanted to get some peanut butter, but it is really expensive, so I didn't get any. Then in the refrigerated section, I saw small rectangular containers of something that looked like peanut butter, but was had a little more red, and a little more green. I had no idea what it was, but I bought some anyway. Turns out it is basically a soy sauce spread. I put it on a sandwhich with rice the first time I ate it, and I couldn't force myself to finish eating it. This was partly because the loaf of bread I had bought was really sweet (almost like angel food cake), and the contrast was terrible. I thought I might be able to eat it if I just deluted it a lot, but I haven't been able to eat any since then, even though I found regular tasting bread. I also found some pretty terrible candy. There is a grocery store right across the street with bulk bins, selling different foods, and a lot of different types of candy. Naturally I tried to buy the cheapest stuff they had, while still getting something good. I also was trying to get something that wasn't pre-packaged, as a lot of the candies were. I found two things. The first was about the same shape and color as a dried apricot, but it was completely dry, a little smaller, and had a splotchy white coating which I assumed to be sugar. Despite its good looks, it tasted like sand, and had the consistency of fruit that rotted, and then sat in the sun and dried out. The other candy wasn' too bad really, and tasted a lilttle like licorice. It was shaped into little brown balls, about the same diameter as a quarter, and also had what looked like a sugar coating. It was pretty chewy, and good enough to eat, but I don't think worthy of a repeat buy.

Today was different though, and I stumbeled upon a real gold mine. Fake meat log. One of the things I really miss about not eating meat is salami, especially for backpacking. Its high fat, high protein, cheaper than dirt, and basically dosen't go bad. Now I've got a solid alternative. Fake meat log. Its probably not as fatty as real meat log, but that might be a good thing. I sliced off a couple rounds, and fried them up to make a sandwhich, which was where I found the second goldmine of the day. Some sort of spicy peanut sauce. They had a whole rack of hot sauces and barbeque spices at the store, but this one said it was ok for vegetarians, so I grabbed it. It really mixes well with the tofu meat log, and so I fried up a couple of sandwiches for dinner, before going to thai kickboxing. I like the class more and more ever time I go. I took kung fu in high school, and I think about that and compare it to this, and kung fu just had so many frills.