Hoagie

The only thing that got me through the boring day at work yesterday was knowing that I planned on making a hoagie when I went home. I had planned to make one on Sunday night, but got to lazy to collect all the ingredients. So yesterday right after I got home from work, I went out to the stores and got the necessities.

The grocery store provided me with tomato, lettuce, cheese, pepper and meats. Lunch meats are not easy to find in Japanese groceries stores and the ones you do find are limited. I got some form of sausage and what looked like maybe turkey. I should have known it wasn't turkey since the package said it was ham, but the packages called everything ham, so I thought that might have been a brand or something. I also got mayo, or what I thought was mayo, but if I had bothered reading the package would have seen was butter.

I then headed down the bakery to buy two loaves of bread I had been eying up to use as rolls. I'll say now that they worked very well. I'm glad I have that bakery because otherwise these hoagies would have been less satisfying.

I got home and began preparing everything. I have picture I'll add later. My 1 sq. ft. of counter space was in full use while I was making these sandwiches. Luckily I have a sharp knife and cutting board in my apartment, because the cutting board gave me more space since I could place it over the sink and the knife was just really useful.

Having cut the roll and prepared the lettuce and tomato, I looked to my "mayo" to start the sandwich. It was then that I realized I had gotten butter. I could not tolerate such a mistake and left everything mid-preparation to go procure some mayo. I went to the drug store this times, since I had searched the grocery store already with butter as my closest find. I'm sure they carry mayo, but I just wasn't going to spend more time looking there for it.

I found the mayo quickly in the drug store and returned to my work. I layered everything on the roll, topped it off with some pepper and cut it in half so that it would fit on my plate. I sort of wish I had oregano or hoagie oil, but I have to move in 3 weeks and I would not use that up in 3 weeks.

It was just the other day that I was talking with my Italian friends Steve and Matteo about my limited cooking abilities. I likened myself to Arthur Dent in Douglas Adams' Mostly Harmless. If transplanted to a foreign place or in Arthur's case planet, the best skill I have to offer from my home is the ability to make a good sandwich. So I played Arthur Dent last night and got a little taste of home while watching Olympic baseball and softball (somehow both games were Japan v. Canada).