One Pot

Ah yes, my blog, that canvass of neglect, that conduit of silence, that never-ending, rarely-updating story of my life.

Why do I ignore you so?

Blah. Enough with the sentimental stuff.

---

Last I wrote here, I was weathering a storm. A typhoon (aka hurricane) to be clear. Obviously I made it through that all right. If you were really following along, you would have also seen my (cell-phone-powered) twitter updates at the time, which picked up after the power went out and took my Internet access with it.

By morning, all was well. Minor damage (none to my building). Slight floodery nearby. Trains weren't running. The power was still out.

At school, the trees rained down debris overnight. In the morning, with the students told to stay home, we teachers cleaned it up. One student who showed up by mistake joined in the cleanup.

And now, roughly two months later, I'm here. I don't know if I'll keep the blog going again. I came back last time in a spurt, but then it sputtered out. We'll see.

---

Right now, as fall picks up -- winter temperatures have reared and shall rear again next week -- the season of nabe has begun. Nabe literally means "pot" in Japanese, but in practice it means much more.

The nabe pot is brought to the table, heated on a gas-powered or convection burner. A base broth of some kind is brought to a boil, then whatever ingredients you like are thrown in. Popular broth bases include curry or kimchi. The toppings of course include a variety of vegetables and meat.

Nabe represents a communal eating style popular in many Asian cultures. Everyone grabs what they want from the central pot. Sometimes, when you finish your solids, you pour the extra broth in your bowl back into the pot to cook up the next round. Nabe fosters this level of closeness. Though in these times of the new flu, perhaps the communal nature of nabe will be seen as a threat this winter.

I've had nabe at restaurants as part of a course menu (blow fish!), and I've had nabe at friends' places. But as of this last weekend I can now nabe (sure, it's a verb) at home.



I did the kimchi type over the weekend and then curry tonight, with my ALT colleagues Annette and Conrad as guests. We were all quite full after the session, which also featured a screening of the latest episode of Dexter.

Now, as 11 p.m. nears, I'm winding down, wondering what's for dinner tomorrow. More nabe? We'll see.