Today was one of those Western (??) lunches. :)
Chili dogs
Curry flavored soup with cabbage, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, and small slices of pork (I'm starting to realize that these small slices of pork are in almost every soup!)
Blueberry yogurt with bananas and peaches in it
Milk
I hope you guys have enjoyed seeing my Japanese school lunches this week! They are seriously one of my favorite things about my job here! ;) It's SO nice to not have to wake up early every morning to make lunch like I did when I taught in the States. AND it's really, really great to get to try so many different foods...AND it only costs me about ￥250 a day! Best of all, it usually tastes ちょうおいしい.
Today's lunch was one of my favorites!
マーボー豆腐 (mabo dofu) - a Chinese dish - ground pork, tofu, and diced vegetables in a delicious sauce with rice
"Chinese salad" - cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, bits of scrambled egg, small slices of pork, and chunks of squid ;(~ in a light dressing
An apple slice
And milk
On Wednesdays I go to elementary school, and it seems like almost every Wednesday is seafood day at elementary school! ugh!!! Actually, after checking out the monthly lunch menu, I think 玲子 (Reiko), the dietitian at my elementary school, just has more of a taste for seafood...so it's on the menu a lot-- not just Wednesdays. Although we sometimes have seafood at my jr. high, seafood on Wednesdays is particularly bad for me because at elementary school I always eat with the kids. It's part of my scheduled day. So...if there's something I don't like, I usually have to eat it anyway, because the kids have to eat all of their food. (The first time I was served shishamo was at elementary school!!) (At jr. high I usually eat with the kids a couple times a week, but it's not part of my actual schedule, so I can just choose to eat with kids when I want to...when there's nothing on the menu that I really dislike.)
Due to the track record of "seafood Wednesdays", I'm always a little nervous to check the lunch menu when I go to elementary school. Today, I was very pleasantly surprised!! We had:
Pumpkin bread
Ground pork in a delicious sauce with carrots, mushrooms, peas, bamboo shoots, white radish, and slightly fried potatoes. SO good!
Miso soup with tofu, cabbage, onions, carrots, and (SURPRISE!) salmon. Whaat?! We have this soup often, and I really like it. I started eating it happily, but then when I took a sip of the broth, I knew instantly there was fish in it! blah! I looked...and saw chunks of salmon floating in it. Just when I thought I had escaped seafood Wednesday for once, it snuck up on me!
Fruits barbaloa-- which is chunks of bananas, pineapple, and oranges in a sweet, yet tart, pudding/yogurt-ish stuff.
And milk...which as usual, I saved to bring home to use in my coffee.
