Thursday, May 31, 2007

all i need is the ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game...

can i just say that if the thin man were remotely into dressing up for halloween. THIS would be the PERFECT costume.

anyway, considering the state of the world today, i really should build a bunker and fill it with big bags of rice, bottled water, a rice cooker and some barrels of toyo (soy sauce) 'cause that's all i'd need... i'm not talking about all the other vital survival crap that i'd have to fill it up with to take care of the thin man and the kids... like the simpsons dvds or 365 recipes for stray cats in the event of a nuclear holocaust....

i'm talking MY STAPLES... and i could not survive without a fresh, steaming bowl of rice and toyo. that porcelain vessel of goo'ness just brings me back to center. but what KIND of rice? what BRAND of toyo? those are the questions...

as a kid, i don't even remember what brand we used to buy. it was always long grain, but it wasn't botan though. i always knew we were getting rice whenever my uncle climbed grumpily into the back seat of my moms chevy chevette. we'd head to fulton market (issacson & stein) and buy red snapper, snails and crabs. then, mom and lola would peruse the HUGE bags of rice and point to the one that my uncle would heave like atlas onto his shoulder. then, we'd always buy a big can of kikkoman.

as i got older, my mom started to buy thai jasmine rice exclusively. she really liked how fragrant it was. i think she thought it covered up the smell of the fried fish we had for breakfast. it didn't. she also started to buy silver swan brand toyo exclusively. i remember the first time i had a guinness stout. it was so.... good. i couldn't believe i had ever put a miller light to my lips. i thought this is like silver swan to kikkoman.

eventually, when i finally moved out and had my own kitchen to fill, i also bought jasmine rice (and continue to do so). and i was also a silver swan customer until a random incident when i tried to splash some toyo on some rice and couldn't. i looked inside to see if there was something blocking the neck of the bottle and found that there was mold floating on the surface of the toyo. i know. did that not make your stomach flip or what? i'd never seen mold growing in toyo before or since. maybe that was just a bad bottle, but i stopped buying silver swan after that and went back to kikkoman. then one day my corner grocery was out of kikkoman and they only had san-j brand tamari soy sauce. i shrugged and placed it in my basket and i've been hooked on it ever since. it's not milller light. it's not guinness stout. it's kinda like a microbrew or maybe a belgian...

so, feel free to come over for some rice and soy sauce... you know, when some random person remembers to sound the all clear siren and all...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We used to go to the fulton fish market all the time as kids. I remember the guy with the bloody fish innards on his apron handing out Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pops. I thought the fish market closed. Please tell me I am wrong.

Oh, and I will be at your house if the end of the world comes and will bring along my superduper huge rice cooker and my gallon cans of kikkoman. Plus, I will bring along my supply of dried mangos and some dental floss.

Unknown said...

irene - whoa. i don't remember the tootsie roll tootsie pops. but i was never a big fan of those... i was a WAY bigger fan of the big crab bins. couldn't wait to get those dudes home and chow.

the latest yelp review says their still open and apparently, they're still handing out the pops.

lastly, dude, you'd need to bring a truckload of dried mangoes... that's like crack ovah here at casita 'zilla... and FANTASTIC idea about the dental floss - that cat hair could get out of hand... ;)

honglien123 said...

De-lurking to comment that my 2 year old Sweet Pea just pushed me aside and climbed on my desk to point at your picture of the Paloma and scream wildly, "CUTE! CUUUUTE!"

Re: Soy sauce, Kikkoman eh...Silver Swan sounds intriguing, despite the mold.

Unknown said...

honglien123 - HA! that reminds me of the time, the pork chop licked my laptop screen when a picture of bokumbop's lil T came on. hilarious! i'm glad my amateur photography is gaining popularity amongst the early learning set! ;)

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