Last week he bumped it up a notch......
And brought in THIS.........
One gross, big-looking freeze-dried sardine.
You guys, it was DISGUSTING. That unmistakable fish smell was oozing right through that plastic wrap. Ewwwww.
I did not eat this this time. I just smiled real big to my friend Hide, said, "Thank you......I eat for later!" and tucked it into my desk drawer.
8 hours later and my desk now reeking like pungent fish, I snuck out with it and threw it out in a cafeteria garbage can, where I knew the custodial staff changed out the garbage bags at least every 4 hours.
I guess I have a little way to go yet with accepting this weird taste-testing marathon. One of our biggest sweethearts in the Weld department is this man named Glen, an old man with a full head of light-bulb-bright-white hair, who could have retired 30 years ago by now. (Actually he just announced he is retiring October 30th of this year.....I was secretly so heartbroken when I heard him tell us in a morning meeting.)
Well the day Hide was handing out sardines like it was trick-or-treat, Glen had a can of Starkist tuna packed for lunch with some fancy French gouda cheese. And at lunch time he promptly walked up to Hide and invited him to sit down for a classy lunch, just the two of them, to try some American-style sardines. Hide lept up from his chair, honored that Glen-san was thinking of him. (In Japanese you add the suffix '-san' to someone's name as a way to show deep respect and friendship to them. Our Japanese coworkers do this all the time to our names, it's cool.)
I think fish is Hide-san's favorite food?? He is always talking about it in his broken English, or he is knawing on it......
Anyway, Glen sets a good example for what we other American associates should be doing to befriend our home-country visiting associates. They're a lot of fun, and Hide really gets around to talking to anyone, he is so bubbly and quirky.
Hide made it up to me big time though, by pulling out this box of 'Meji,' or some sort of candy and asking if I wanted to try some. And.....it had CHOCOLATE in it! I was sold. Hide laughed at the reaction an American girl jumps at, for chocolate.
That is what the box looked like. It's like something you could buy at a movie theater, but I do admit it was a little kinky. It was chocolate + cookie crackers in the shape of MUSHROOMS. Mushrooms.......why THAT of all shapes?!?!?! Some sort of innuendo to drugs?! I hope not.
My mushroom cookie: a cookie trunk and a chocolate head. I insisted to Hide that we share the box, but he kept on gesturing and placing the box on my desk to eat them. He really was being so sweet - and they DID taste good. :)I just figured sharing some of these foods and how they are prepared, would be interesting. So far, my overall opinion of them is exactly neutral. The chocolate treat weighed in while the fishy surprise weighed out. :)
I'll keep you posted on any new cuisines brought my way!
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