Not All Roses

Today, not even food could cheer me up. I'm going to blame it on the rain. It's just plain wet here. It started around 10 a.m. and didn't stop until 3. I didn't mind it at first. It's not cold out, but after walking around in it so much the legs of my pants got soaked up to the knees and I was just feeling plain grumpy. I'd forgotten all about my soundtrack. I wasn't smiling or looking at people. In fact, I didn't care if I bumped into them with my umbrella and I didn't get out of their way when passing on the street. Today, I acted as many of the Londoners do. Please don't misunderstand. I've only had delightful encounters with the people here. But I've noticed that people seem caught up in their own world. They rush past you, always in a hurry. They don't move out of your way, you just have to lunge forward, head first. And, like I said, I don't see many of them smile, unless prodded first. So today, I absorbed the environment. But I took it even further. I was downright foul. The apartment on my dream street, just five minutes from my school, turned out to be a hell hole. I don't understand how anyone would shell out 500 bucks a week to live in a slum. Again, I'm not exaggerating. The communal kitchen downstairs smelled of shit and mold and it looked as if it had been through a carwash of garbage. I had to get out of there before I gagged.

I have been calling tons of places and emailing people and still no apartment. I even went to the school today to see if there was a message board and there wasn't. Just a board advertising chef jobs in S. Africa. Doesn't help me right now. The problem is, most places don't rent for less than 6 months. Damn.

I had to get food, so I went to Waitrose, a high end market, kind of like Whole Foods without the emphasis on health food. You can get fresh figs, and tons and tons of prepared foods. I got some antipasti, roasted artichokes, cannelini and lemon hummus, sweet potato chips and a prepared meal of chicken tikka and basmati rice with veggies. I heated it for just two minutes in the microwave. Now that's convenience food. Still, I wasn't giddy as I should've been. Food always does the trick for me. I went to another store called the Natural Kitchen. It's like a natural foods store if it were to be put in glass and kept in a museum. Total high end boutique, but I was amazed at their offerings. Things I'd never heard of before. Beautiful stuff. I almost bought zucchini pate made in Italy and artichoke puree with garlic. I saw something called Amazake I'd never heard of. Made from brown rice or millet, it's fermented and naturally sweet and you can use it as dessert or bake with it. Here's what wikipedia says about it:

"Amazake (甘酒? IPA: [ɑmɑzɑkɛ]) is a traditional sweet, low-alcoholic Japanese drink made from fermented rice. Amazake dates from Kofun period, and it is mentioned in the Nihon Shoki. It is part of the family of traditional Japanese foods made using Aspergillus oryzae (kōji?) that includes miso, soy sauce, and sake.

The basic recipe for amazake has been used for hundreds of years. Kōji is added to cooled whole grain rice causing enzymes to break down the carbohydrates into simpler unrefined sugars. As the mixture incubates, sweetness develops naturally.

Amazake can be used as a dessert, snack, natural sweetening agent, baby food, salad dressing or smoothie. The traditional drink (prepared by combining amazake and water, heating to a simmer, and often topped with a pinch of finely grated ginger) was popular with street vendors, and it is still served at inns and teahouses. Many Shinto shrines provide or sell this in the New Year. In the 20th century, an instant version became available.

Amazake is believed to be very nutritious, with no additives, preservatives, added sugars or salts. Outside of Japan, it is often sold in health food shops."

But what's koji? Well here's the gross part. And to think, we've been eating mold all along...

"Aspergillus oryzae (Chinese: 麴菌, 麴霉菌, 曲霉菌, pinyin: qū meí jùn, Japanese: 麹, 麹菌 or kōji-kin) is a filamentous fungus (a mold) used in Chinese and Japanese cuisine which ferments soybeans to produce soy sauce and miso. The fungus is also used by both cultures to saccharify rice, potatoes and grains for fermentation in the making of alcoholic beverages as huangjiu, sake, awamori and Shōchū. Also, the fungus is used for the production of rice vinegars as the Japanese rice vinegar (awasezu), ... The protease enzymes produced by this species is marketed by the company Novozymes under the name Flavourzyme."

Suddenly, I'm not hungry.