Plat du Jour: Malbouffe délicieux ....

I came to know last night that my two daughters (and my wife, too) do not share my delight in Sushi of the uncooked kind.

They were at first very eager when they saw the cute pack filled with sushi pieces I bought for breaking fast, and as is always the case, the younger one gets to go first.

She dipped her fingers in the red roe, and the placed them in her mouth. Nothing. "So far so good,” I thought.


My other daughter then took a quarter bite from the same piece.

The taste must have come as a shock to her as even as she started chewing, her face began to contort, giving me the “Eww!" expression, and, before I could say anything, she had already bolted to the sink, spitting everything out.

Everyone (except for me) was shocked even as I laughed. Only when I saw tear flowing from her eyes did I realized the extent of her reaction to the taste of uncooked fish roe, which, unfortunately, her dad loves.

I comforted her and asked her to drink warm water to wash the taste away as my wife berated me for feeding the children something she, too, wouldn't touch.

The little one didn’t ask for seconds, by the way.


Sigh. No one to share this particular love, then.

There goes my dream (someday) of visiting Japan with my family in tow to taste the many sushi dishes they have.

(Perhaps I can tempt them with the more palatable tempura dish…)

I am someone with a “pondan” (to quote a particularly irritating relative’s word) stomach when it comes to food, and am quite choosy in eating pre-cooked food as I am prone to stomach aches whenever I do so.

I’d settled for cooked food anytime (except for the aforementioned sushi, that is..) including the ubiquitous fast food which used to be de rigueur during family outings.

They are convenient, the kids love them and its relatively inexpensive until of late when prices soared to match – probably – our own highish inflation levels.

Nowadays, a RM50 note would be just enough to cater for the four of us, desserts inclusive. Even then, we have to carefully balance the purchase in a mix of ala carte and set meals to stretch the note and get some change back.

It was thus with eyebrows raised that I read this Bloomberg story titled French Bistros File Record Bankruptcies as Le Big Mac Reigns , especially the part where it quotes the price of a McD doublecheese set meal at 8 euro.

A rule I learnt from my stint overseas is that you should never, ever, convert when it comes to food; otherwise you’d starved to death. Compare their prices in terms of numbers and you should be safe.

(As an example, converting the above price at the prevailing rate will get you a price of RM36.58. Ouch! That’s more than the alleged cash bribe needed to buy a vote in a certain party nominations.)

What was more interesting in the story was the point that fast food is becoming the choice lunch there what’s with the current dismal economic situation almost everywhere the world over.

Imagine that.

Here, the fast food is still very much a once-in-a-while lunch or dinner treat, and the French (a notion put forward by the article, at least) is treating it as a budget item for hard times!

How far behind exactly are we in the economic pecking order?