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03-20-2000 Back to all Archives Back to 2000: January - March Archives Back to Current Entry list |
When I checked into the hotel on Friday night, along with my fun with lights, I also noticed that there was a little rock sitting on the bedside table. It was carefully placed on a tiny glass thing that resembles a plate broken in half, with a little indentation for the rock to rest in. I didn't think much of it at the time. Nor did I really pay attention to it on Saturday. I figured maybe it was a decoration. Some sort of local custom to have a little gray speckly rock in the room. Until, of course, I picked it up and sniffed. Hey. Truffle!! When I got back to my hotel room tonight there was another one sitting there. This time it looked more like chocolate - the first had been rolled in powdered sugar. Or maybe it was that now I knew what it was. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe, Singapore for dinner tonight. I know that when in a foreign country one should make sure to partake of local foods and such. However, Sunday night's Chinese 8-course dinner, while mostly good, was of the variety of 'you don't ask what it is before you eat it because you really don't want to know'. Today's lunch was the same, although I did recognize some of the things at lunch from the things on Sunday night. I know that certain sea-dwelling creatures are edible, and in some cultures considered quite the delicacy but, let's face it, I'm an American, and while I consider myself to be at least open enough to try things, I have an issue with tentacles. Food with obvious tentacles just really bothers me. Whole little squids or octopus just really unnerve me. If I must eat tentacled things, I would much rather they were chopped into smaller pieces so I don't actually *see* them. I might know that they are there. I just don't want to see them. Does this make me a major food wimp? Hey, I ate the jellyfish. I tasted the sharkfin soup. I downed the clams. I even ate snails at that French restaurant we went to Saturday night. I ate one of the little octopuses. But it was hard. Trust me. Anyway, back to the Hard Rock. We walked inside. It was like being back home. Not, mind you, that I frequent Hard Rock Cafe's with any great regularity. I went to the one in Sacramento once, just to see what all the hubbub was about, and frankly I wasn't impressed. But here in Singapore, the ability to sit down at a table, listen to familiar music, and consume burgers and club sandwiches and chocolate malts was just so nice. And finding another rock in my room tonight only made it better. Feed me dark chocolate and I don't care if the food has tentacles or eyeballs (well.....I may be going too far with the eyeballs there). I'm happy. |