Not-barb

I have been all excited these last few weeks because a batch of rhubarb arrived in the grocery store. I have been too busy at work to make anything as elaborate as, say, dessert, but I grabbed some rhubarb today to make into a topping for ice-cream.

To counter balance the real main course of the evening, I decided to be extra healthy for dinner. I decided on spinach salad with a chinese-restaurant-style saute vegetable concoction on top and a slab of grilled fish. After a dinner like that you practically NEED dessert, right?

I tried to buy vanilla ice cream on my way home, but the 7-11 didn't have any and it was raining like it meant it outside, so I just trudged home. After dinner, I sent Russell out to get the ice cream and I started chopping rhubarb. All was going well until I decided to chew on a piece.

Celery. I got some kind of crazy big celery-tasting rhubarb impostor.

I was terribly disappointed. It wouldn't be so bad if I actually could get rhubarb here... but now I'm worried it won't happen. I guess its still early in the season. I should probably try to be patient - but I've been here very nearly a full year so far, and I don't remember any other likely rhubarb candidates.

I was also sad that I couldn't find beets. We're pretty close to Russia here, I was hopeful that beets would have made the little hop over to Japan, but apparently not.

The good news is that there is a wide variety of absolutely delicious vegetables in Japan that I'm really hoping I won't be forced to part with when I eventually return States-side. I don't really want to imagine a kitchen without goya, satsuma imo, young bamboo shoots and the wide variety of amazing mushrooms.

Vegetable Love.

I also still got ice cream out of the evening's fiasco, so that 'aint so bad.