Listing away

I have a list. It's long and rambling and tangles the time and space continuum to create a world that offers cheese grits and flautas and fume blanc all on the same menu. Ooh. What a tingling combination. Especially if the flautas came with salsa verde and the grits had a bit of Gorgonzola. And a sprinkling of fresh, fried thyme.

No, I'm not high. I'm headed back to America for three weeks. Look, I love Japanese food as much as the next gaijin girl. This blog, I hope, helps my argument. There are some things, though, that I miss. Actually, this being spring and the world opening up and all, there are some things that I just crave. And while Tokyo is now, undoubtedly, one of the best food cities in the world according to some, I sometimes get a little hankering for home. (I'm not the only one. My friend hasn't been to his North Carolina home in almost two years. He goes next month and says he's having this the first day.)

Many things I want I can find here, but they cost too pretty a yen. Exhibit A: Two nights ago, I actually considered spending $20 on a head of fennel. It was a very lovely head of fennel, no doubt. But I took more than a full minute deciding whether it would be foolish. What's $20? I mean in Tokyo, at many places, it's barely two beers. (I put it back, grabbed a $2 bunch of watercress, and made for the exit.)

Three weeks is a long time. I will miss sushi. I will miss onigiri. I will miss tofu and miso at every turn. I will miss fried food that stays crispy, apples that stay juicy, eggs that look, feel, cook and taste like eggs, and the mayo that makes me hum. I will certainly miss telling people that all I really want for dinner is a little rice and fish roe and having them think that sounds perfectly fine. At least when those people are Japanese. They seem to think I'm phenomenally normal. It's part of the reason I feel so at home here.

Yet, I'm feeling selfish, and there's just a few more things that I'd like to add to my perpetual shopping list:

sugar snap peas
rhubarb
asparagus
anything remoulade
fresh flour tortillas
fresh corn tortillas
refried beans, made in a pan that has never been washed because it's never been empty
pizza -- homemade, thin, crispy, chewy, mouth-watering pizza-pie
bread pudding
bread and butter
bread, toasted, with garlic and olives and hot peppers and basil
anything with hot peppers
cilantro
guacamole that someone else made for me
expensive California wine
cheap California wine
fish tacos
all tacos
alligator cheesecake
remoulade with a straw
gumbo
corned beef
greek yogurt
fresh hommus
fresh mint
radishes
sweet potato pie
fried chicken
tamales
a proper bloody mary
buttermilk, right there, in the store
artichokes
H&H bagels
matzo ball soup, straw optional

Please stay tuned for weight-loss May, or, why the Japanese diet really is good for you. It is. I know it. But could someone, in the meantime, please pass the biscuits?