No coffee for me, thanks!

I don't get why people think milk is gross.  I mean, I've heard a lot of "reasons."  I just don't get them.

This said, I tried not to be ostentatious while drinking my chocolate milk on the train platform Saturday morning.  It's not that I think I'm better than non-milk drinkers, but I cannot allow them to squelch my passion for the stuff.  I drink it openly, and in public, but sedately, I hope.

Ronnybrook Farm's dairy products are a true luxury.  Such a beverage should never offend.

Japanese Picnic foods

In Seattle, Eva took us to Uwajimaya (an impressive Asian-and-more grocery/home goods market) in the International District for a pre-camping shopping trip. We also picked up some ready-to-eat items for snacking in the car on the way to (and on board) the ferry.



Inarizushi are fried tofu pouches filled with sushi rice. They are good cold -- moist and sugary, but tangy from the (rice wine?) vinegar -- but I wondered if they might be even better just fried and crispy. Then I discovered that the pouches come pre-made in cans. One merely stuffs and (some recipes say) steams them. So I guess they wouldn't be crispy that way, either.

We also tried onigiri (not pictured), triangles of rice and filling (salmon, eel, etc) with crisp seaweed around the outside. The packaging of the brand we found in the market ingeniously keeps the seaweed dry - even if one of your onigiri gets lost in the cooler and doesn't get eaten until the next day.

Ooh, and there were some kind of delicious shrimp rolls (I've forgotten the name). They were excellent - fresh and crunchy and light.



But...



Less satisfying were the Cheese Rings, which also tasted quite sugary. Though the flavor was "off," the shape was novel and they were eaten anyway. I mean, as long as one is trying new things...

Make mine a monkey?

As much as I like chocolate, I'm not that into "mocha" flavored drinks. But I do like frozen-whipped-smoothie-icy beverages. So I was all for trying an advertised "Monkey Mocha" after a long car ride on a sunny day. Dan saw the sign and hopped out of the car to buy a couple while we were in line outside the parking lot for the ferry to Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, WA, and he made it back to the vehicle just in time for us to board and drink the mochas on the crossing. Not bad. Hit the spot, as they say.

Yet -- why "monkey?" It certainly wasn't an ingredient. Was there banana in there? I didn't taste any. Nor was it served by monkeys. The bikini coffees at the bikini espresso stands are served by bikini-clad women (ask me what I think about this), so shouldn't the monkey mochas be served by primates? Nice mocha; confusing name.

Nopelets and notlets

Cranaplet, originally uploaded by jennybunny.

I do not like aplets and cotlets. In years past they were given to us at Christmas as gifts by friends of the family, so I have known that I dislike them for a while. Recently, Dan insisted on buying them as a genuine Washington state treat for a camping trip. I thought I should give them another try, especially as I might like this new cranberry flavor more. I did not.

They are not "deliciously soft." The jellied texture grosses me out. The plasticky taste does not please me. And the walnuts suspended in the semi-solid goo remind me of when I did not like "nuts in things. "

I was kind of glad they got soggy and wrecked in the cooler and had to be thrown away. Sorry, Dan.

Jet Blue; Snack Violet

On board a flight from San Diego to Seattle, I got out the second item from my British snack sampler. Parma Violets have a floral scent, so what better snack could there be when you're sitting just two rows from the bathrooms on a plane?

The scent reminded me, not unpleasantly, of a funeral home or artificial flower spray--but in a lighter and inoffensive way. They smell like a sweet-tempered Grandma. And they taste kind of like one, too, I imagine, without assuming all Grandmas are so dry and chalky (mine is not).

These seem like a novelty item to me. It was not really difficult to stop eating them after testing a couple. They stubbornly resist the moisture in one's mouth, so I found it more agreeable to suck on one for a while, rather than chewing it right away. Doing this also mellows the flavor, which can otherwise be a little soapy, in a positive way.