Eating Like a College Student

So my girls have left me and I'm home to fend for myself. The dog's here to keep me company, but it's an awkward dance spending time with her.

As you can imagine, I'm really eating quite well. I eat out so often when traveling that I have really no desire to do so now. I did go to the grocery store after dropping the girls at the airport and picked up a few necessities - you know, a chocolate muffin, lot's of french vanilla and key lime yogurt (they were out of orange cream - quite possibly the Eden of yogurts). The yogurt was only $.39 each, so I bought eleven! I also picked up a frozen pizza and some Art's tortilla chips to go with the hideous Walmart brand salsa Allison bought the other day.

But the best thing I got was the ingredients for a banana cream pie. I came home from the store, baked the frozen pizza for breakfast and, while it was in the oven, made the banana cream pie. It wasn't really gourmet, but who needs gourmet when Nilla wafer crust and banana pudding are involved? It wasn't really set up, but I enjoyed a piece of pie right after my pizza. (It might have been before.) Mmm.

Today the madness, continued. After a day of fasting, I had that chocolate muffin and lots and lots of tortilla chips. Delicious. (And then I didn't feel very well.)

Tomorrow will be better. I think I'll go to the store again with the aim of buying actual food that requires preparation beyond removing it from the package.

But this is really just a setup for my main topic - Ramen. I just saw the trailer for a movie called The Ramen Girl. It doesn't look that good, though the visuals of a ramen shop are particularity evocative to me. (I'm not referring to the girl standing in a towel - that evocative scene wasn't in a ramen shop.)

Probably a better movie is Tampopo, a Japanese spaghetti (noodle) western set in a roadside ramen shop in Japan. Aside from a couple of spots of brief, bizarre sensual content, this is a fantastic movie. (Maybe Clean Flicks should get a hold of this one.) I recommend it to anyone interested in Japan or just a funny show, though you'll probably miss a lot without the cultural context.

Finally, since we're planning on taking another trip to Japan, I thought I'd start posting places I think would be interesting to visit. You see, I've been to the bars, the temples, the massage parlors, the muddy old rivers and reclining Buddhas. Um - scratch the massage parlors and bars.

What I really enjoy is spending time living like the Japanese (hanging out with friends, riding the train, hot springs - preferably riding the train to hang-out at the hot springs) and enjoying the random quirks of Japanese culture. In the spirit of quirkiness, I'll start my list of places to visit with the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in Osaka. Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen during Japan's post-war period. Mr. Ando, a Taiwan native, died in early 2007 at age 96, presumably after enjoying one too many bowls of instant ramen.

When Emi was asked to write a report a few days later on an important historical figure, can you guess whom I suggested?

Update: This just might be heaven - Ramen Bath.