One of the first Japanese phrases our team leader taught me was ichiban yasui. It means, “whatever is cheapest.” Like many in full-time ministry, we share a propensity for being frugal (some by choice and some by necessity). Frugal people (as opposed to people who are cheap) don’t mind spending money; we just want to get the biggest bang for the smallest buck. So naturally, I was very excited to have made a discovery at one of our local supermarkets. But let me give you the back story first…

Theresa and I both try to eat very healthily, but around 9 or 10 o’clock at night, I get what one of the elders at our sending church used to call my “fat attack.” I’ll eat anything as long as it’s high in carbs and/or protein and preferably deep-fried. I am happy to eat whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, soy, and beans for the first ten hours of my day, but in those last two, I want junk. The drive between our sending church and our apartment back in Pennsylvania took us right past Wal-Mart and we would often stop on our way back from church on a Wednesday night to pick up things we needed. Shortly after were married, we made a discovery. If we left church at just the right time (not too early, not too late) we would arrive at Wal-Mart just as they were closing up the deli and selling any unsold deep-fried goodies (chicken, shrimp, potatoes) at 60% off. I convinced Theresa that we needed to take advantage of a bargain and pick up a pound of chicken fingers. This evolved into our regular Wednesday night ritual for over two years until Wal-Mart stopped offering the discount, sighting some sort of health risk (not the heart disease kind – it was something about the food being allowed to cool below bacteria-killing temperatures). We were crushed.

So fast-forward to 2009. Theresa and I have been taking a Japanese class offered by the city on Wednesday nights and after one particular night, we swung by the local supermarket to pick up a few things for the next day. Much to our delight, we came to discover that after a certain time of night, they too discount all of their prepared food. Not only do they have little bite-sized pieces of fried chicken, which rival Wal-Mart’s, but other yummy Japanese dishes like chicken shishkabob, octopus fritters, sushi, deep fried fish fillets, and croquets (deep fried potato patties). The Wednesday night tradition was back!

On another food related note I thought you would enjoy, I was talking with one of the deacons at the lighthouse church this past Sunday and was describing for him some of the food I have eaten in different countries. One of my favorites from Cambodia was Lok Lak, which is beef stir fried with garlic and then served with a lime, soy sauce, and peppercorn dipping sauce. When I described the dish, he seemed to be confused, even though they have something similar in Japanese cuisine. He was asking me questions that sounded like he was picturing pudding. So finally, I turned to our team leader and asked him to help me in describing the dish. As he did, the light bulb went on in this Japanese man’s mind, but in mine as well. It was then I realized that I had been using gyu-nyu (the word for milk) instead of gyu-niku (the word for beef) as I described this stir-fried dish.

Please pray for Colby and Theresa as we continue to sort through our items and get settled into the apartment. We continue to praise the Lord for the relief of being moved in!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Life in Cross-Cultural Ministry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.