I’m munching away on some sort of pickled/oiled Dutch red-colored fish with onion slices. In Hebrew the fish is called מטיאס but I have no idea what it is in English. Some sort of red herring? Who knows. The online translator couldn’t tell me.
Why am I doing this? I’m starving. And it was an impulse buy at the the local organic grocery store. They tell you never to go grocery shopping hungry… Well, there’s a very good reason for that. I usually don’t, but sometimes (like when you get over 1,000 page views in a day – thank you WordPress.com for featuring my blog!) you’re really inspired to cook something new and crazy and somewhat exotic.
I left the store with four cans of coconut milk – of varying brands, prices, and on a long spectrum of organic to preservative-filled – more organic tamari soy sauce, sesame oil, shredded seaweed, miso paste, Japanese tofu, Thai green curry, 9% fat cottage cheese (for my sister), four more packs of (still on sale!) buckwheat noodles, vacuum packed chestnuts (disaster to have bought a kilo fresh for Thanksgiving and then spending hours and hours peeling them and getting them painfully lodged under nail beds for days), air freshener oil in a bottle with wooden sticks to spread the smelly love, laundry detergent, and these rapidly disappearing oily fish with onions.
Do you see where I’m going here? Yes, I can make a very excellent Japanese soup and some sides here. I can make something Thai. I can make my coconut ice cream. I’ll have some strange condiments for the next few years. But that’s not food for the week!?! And I spent well over 250 shekels! We’re talking $80+ here. And what have I got? Soup and condiments…
And oily fish. Yes, I have an interesting palate. I’m telling myself that my body desperately craved the natural and oh-so-fortifying oils inside of this fish, because I’m probably eating a triple serving here because everything else in the house has to be cooked…except for the cottage cheese and that’s for my sister.
Advice to you all – it doesn’t matter how badly you need your soy milk for the bran flakes tomorrow morning, or the special gluten-free hoisin for your special dinner tonight, or if you’re just dying for the vegan coconut milk cookie dough ice cream – NEVER go to the organic store hungry.
They don’t call it “Whole Paycheck” for nothing. And unfortunately for me, my organic grocer is literally around the corner. I may need to find a better-paying job — because moving isn’t an option!
Thank you, again, to WordPress.com who chose to feature me today. I feel very honored. Here is the link to my featured article – all about coconut milk.