dear friends,
i'm writing this as an open letter to you because you're probably the only people in the world who know how much the above picture (taken in my kitchen 5 minutes ago) means to me.....
being a vegetarian can be bloody hard in this country. eating out at traditional japanese restaurants is usually fraught with awkward requests to alter a menu item which is often not-negotiable, and eating at japanese homes can mean plate after plate of some side dish like inari sushi or steamed greens (which ain't all that bad, it is true). so i find myself cooking at home most of the time (unless the plan is to dine at some cheap indian or thai place - thankfully quite common here in tokyo but completely non-existant out in the country). sadly though, my usual cooking ingredients are near impossible to find.
today, i ventured out to the local supermarket and detoured via the lovely little import shop, kaldi's coffee house. many of my friends and flatties have told me to go there for various hard-to-find purchases, like decent coffee, etc. i checked it out a few times but was puzzled by the small size and range and wondered why the hell everyone thought this place was so fabulous coz there was nothing in it!
but today, oh sublime divine accidental findings, today i realised why. i found a dark little stairwell that i had never noticed before. i peered up and saw the stairwell walls lined with paraphanalia. at the very top of the stairs, something that shone brighter than any spotlight or pot of gold: a large display of thai curry pastes.
i had found the tokyo based vegetarian pot of gold. every step brought me nearer to a full blown weep! a zillion indian herbs and spices, curry mixes from all over the world, all the taco and nachos ingredients you could ever wish for, shelves and shelves of asian sauces. oh my god. you have no idea how much this place means to me now.
yes, after a 17 month drought, i have found my source for my all time essential ingredient: kecap manis. and my favourite alternative to rice and pasta: cous cous.
and now, i am going to cook up a fucking storm and create the perfect stir fry.
wish you were here,
all my love,
marty xoxo
frangipani wrote this on May 25, 2004 03:47 PM