(So soon? Why, yes. I told you there'd be more to come.)
I had a great day out in the West End with another good friend, Siu Yen, today. We first met at university in first year when we both took a foundation Japanese course as a side-study to our majors. Like all of my friends, she has her own unique and humorous way of seeing how the world works, and according to her I bring our her weirder side (this is a good thing, I'm told!)
She also knows I have a penchant for pretty edible things, sweet things and exotic food, and she kindly brought me a selection of Japanese sweets she'd found, ranging from biscuity to cakey to chewy.
On the train home I ate the mini mochi, mini dorayaki, and small handful of mini chewy sweets. The one I saved for last was an interesting-looking purple parcel that fitted in the palm of my hand, quite different from the others because the packaging obscured what was inside. I should have taken this as a warning, but instead I saw it as a challenge. Likewise when I prodded it and found that it was very, very squishy, I should have listened to my internal monologue that said 'hmm, this is probably going to be messy- better open it at home over a plate.' But instead, I opened it on the train.
It was one of those horrific moments where once you've committed yourself to a task, there's no going back, even though you realise instantly what a terrible mistake you've made. Instantly a sticky sugar syrup started oozing from the tear I made from the top, and because I had birthday presents for two people in the same bag, there was only one real way to dispose of the mess: by eating it.
I began by attempting to suck the syrup out from the tear, which proved to be noisy and just a bit on the socially unacceptable side. The train was packed full, so I really didn't want to draw attention to myself, and I abandoned this method as soon as the packet wasn't brimming with syrup. However I was still unable to just put the packet away because it was still leaking syrup- so I went for it and ripped the packet open further.
I was presented with a very squidgy, clear jelly-type thing, with what looked like an umeboshi (pickled plum) embedded in the middle. I knew it would taste fine, but I knew that visually, it looked quite horrendous. It certainly wobbled very indecently, and it wasn't just jiggly, it was slimy too.
I tried to delicately catch it with my teeth straight from the packet to avoid other people on the train having to see this alien-looking sweet, but only managed to bite off a small piece because it was so soft. After a few failed attempts I decided I was making more of a spectacle of myself with this clumsy display, so I went for it, took the slimy thing out with my fingers and bit straight into it.
The next part happened in a matter of seconds.
I bit straight into the umeboshi stone and choked in pain and surprise. This one simple action caused me to smear the remaining jelly across my face with one hand, and crush the packaging in my other hand, which caused the rest of the syrup to explode all over me.
Now exasperated, sticky and looking quite worse for wear, I glanced upwards, where a large family, who had apparently been observing me in silence, smiled sympathetically at me before getting off at their stop.
~Fin~
No comments:
Post a Comment