A while ago I was mooching around youtube, and I found a video about a japanese school lunch. It consisted of rice with curry and cucumber salad.

Part of the video description says:
"BTW - I didn't eat ANY of my kyushoku today (not the day the video was filmed) - didn't even take the tray over to my desk. :(So it was ritz crackers and oreos today for lunch."

Speaking of people in general, and not just the person in the video: I cannot, for the life of me, understand when people go to a foreign country and choose not to eat the local food, and instead eat what they are used to.

I once went to europe with a tour group, and after a few days, they had had enough of the local breakfast-- cereal, bread and preserves, cheese and cold cuts, yogurt-- and decided to just have instant noodles instead. Which was quite pathetic, since the whole point of going to a foreign country is to experience all it has to offer, and they didn't want to experience the most basic aspect of its culture: food. Afterwards they mentioned that they were expecting something along the lines of a full american breakfast, i.e. warm eggs, french toast, pancakes, bacon-- what they usually have when they go on holidays in asia. In singapore, people usually have toast, fried noodles, or fried rice for breakfast, so the culture shock is pardonable.

But still! Shouldn't one go overseas with an open mind, prepared to expect an environment that doesn't resemble home? I expect some people might latch on to their creature comforts, in a strange place with a different culture.

How have I digressed. Anyway, I just wanted to talk about school lunches, since I was interested in what kids in japan get to eat. By the way, the person making the video is a person from the states who teaches english to elementary and middle school students in japan, as part of the JETS program. I like his other viking video-- one day where the kids get to pick out their own lunches, and they get all kinds of lovely stuff. yumyum. I suppose it's less of a culture shock for me than for him, since I'm more used to japanese cuisine.

This is what I had for lunch today!

On the left is tofu and french beans in curry, and on the right is bergedil, a fried potato cutlet. It's Malay cuisine, since our cafeteria (canteen) is like a food court with stalls selling different kind of foods. I feel lucky that I get to pick what I want to eat every day, and have seconds if I want to-- the kids in the video have to eat what's on the menu that day, and you can't have seconds.

Tomorrow I'll try to get something different, so things will be more interesting. I'm vegetarian too, like Alison (yay something we have in common) so usually I get rice, tofu, and vegetables. Which would be really boring to read about, so I'll get something different.

Oh! And I'd love to know what you have for lunch :D Comment, or put up a picture in a blog entry. Pictures are really good space-fillers.