We walked around the shopping street in the Hilton Village to get some souvenirs in the afternoon. After much consideration, we picked "Honolulu Cookie" up, as they were light. I heard that they were really popular just now. I tried to eat some, and they were nice. Then, we headed for the Ala Moana Center, which was the huge shopping mall, by trolley bus. The information board which was posted inside was written in English and Japanese. I'll show you the Japanese version below. Our destination was a local supermarket next to the Ala Moana Center, where we got some meat for steak and a bottle of red wine. My wife tried to cook beef steaks using American cooking utensils and the sizzling steaks were really delicious. Viewing the ocean at sunset, our dinner was enjoyable. Though dinner-out was costly, self-cooking was reasonable. We've made up our mind to prepare "bento" to save money when going out. I assume that the Japanese word "bento" had already become worldwide like "sushi", "kimono" and "tofu", but "bento" means a light meal packed in a lunch box.
"Bento" reminded me of a funny episode which had happened up the mountain in Whistler, Canada. I was staying in a condominium in the world-class ski resort of Blackcomb and my friends prepared several rice balls with leftover rice from the previous night and we brought them up the mountain for lunch. When we were eating them in a lodge, we noticed that people on both sides' tables were gazing at what we were eating, a black baseball-sized mass. That was a rice ball wrapped with dried seaweed. Dried seaweed, called "Nori", is very common in Japan and is served as a part of a Japanese style breakfast. However, the black ball would be seen as a mysterious object to them. Their eyes were full of curiosity and that was fun to us.
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2012/03/lunch.html
グロテスクなにぎりめし
(Apr. 12th)
午後からはビレッジ内で買物。お土産だ。いろいろ考えた末、軽い物をと考えてホノルルクッキーを選んだ。流行っているのだとか。滞在中に食べてみたがなかなかいける味だった。そして夕方からはトロリーバスでアラモアナセンターへ。車内にあった停車場所の案内は英語と日本語。日本語の方をＵＰする。アラモアナセンターは巨大なショッピングモールだが、目的は地元の人も利用するその隣の食料品店。ステーキ肉とワインを仕入れて焼いてみた。アメリカ製の調理道具ももう慣れた。窓からの景色を眺めながらの食事はまた格別。そして、自炊をすると滞在費がはるかに安くつく。次回からは昼食を持って出かけよう。『弁当』はsushiとかkimonoとかtofuなどと同様に英語になっているようで、英語ではbentoと綴る。
弁当で思い出したことがある。カナダのウィスラーでの話である。前の晩の残りご飯でおにぎりを作り、全体を海苔で包んで山に持って上がり、スキー場のレストランで食べていたところ、両隣のテーブルの人からの不思議そうな視線を感じた。真っ黒な野球ボール大の塊を見て、いったい何を食べているのか？と思ったのでしょうね。その顔が面白くて、、で結局、海苔を一袋、それぞれのテーブルに差し上げることに。(^o^)
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