Stomachs on legs are proud to present

"we should try one michelin star place while we are here" I said unpacking my suitcase in our tiny hotel room in Paris

Hock proceeds to rattle of a litany of choices and possibilities together with a description of the chef's culinary style as well as stating the impossibility of getting a booking at almost all but Joel Rubuchon's which does not take bookings.

"Ok well what is the number of the first one?" Arpege?" He quotes the number telling me there is no way we will get a table for lunch at the last minute.

I call. They have a table. Tomorrow 1 pm. Hock goes into a quiet stupor. His eye lids flutter while the reality settles. He blushes.

"I've taken the liberty of ordering us some tofu, some mushrooms and some duck tongues," said the western woman sitting across from me. "Do you trust me to keep ordering, or is there anything in particular you might like?" I looked at her thinking, "You whore!"

From David Sedaris's recent trip to China

Link

This is my fridge in Thailand where only cooking I did was cooking rice (and go buy something to eat with rice) and cold noodle occasionally:


Left side:

• soy milk
• butter
• tempura crispies from Japan (brought back for a takoyaki party at my friend's)
• shelled tamarind a villager gave me
• Leo beer (giveaway from a party back in... winter, I just do not drink by myself)
• lychees,
• isotonic drink left over from my flu hospitalization last year (I never drink it except when I am sick),
• organic roselle jam,
• organic pickled plums,
• organic soy sauce,
• miso that I never cooked, and
• eye cream (so they don't go bad in the Thai heat).

Right side:

• shiso powder,
• ground organic black sesame (good with cold noodles),
• leftover isotonic drink powder,
• rustic cane sugar blocks a villager gave me,
• facial toner,
• sugarfree Mentos,
• wasabi,
• rice germ sprinkles,
• brown sugar,
• organic jasmine rice, and
• the Thai refrigerator staple: drinking water.

Right now I am sharing an apartment with two Taiwanese people in the US, so sharing the fridge as well:


Not much of the stuff is mine.

I put:

• organic soy milk,
• cage free eggs from "vegetarian-fed hens",
• butter,
  
• multi-grain English muffins,
• Cabot cheese,
• organic soy sauce,
• leftover black beans,
• organic mushroom pasta sauce,
  
• plum tomatoes,
• red onions,
• yellow Spanish onions,
• zucchinis, and
• an unopened jar of kimchi (made in New York).

I am not sure why somebody is refrigerating a box of dry pasta.

And a freezer that seems to resist frost a lot better than my Thai fridge:
Half of the bottom row is my stuff:

• frozen spinach,
• frozen peas & carrots,
• frozen sweetcorn niblets,
• frozen vegetarian dumpling, and
• frozen blueberries.

Somebody seems to believe that used brita filters work as a deodorant in the fridge and freezer. Does it work??