My mother traveled from Montreal with a large suitcase that contains a 5-pound bag of cooked bacon, a bag of Brazilian nuts, and several packages of pasta.
There were a couple of items of clothing hiding between food packets but they were clearly not the star of the show.
My friend’s mom used to come back from family visits with no clothes at all, just all her suitcases crammed with big dried fish and plastic wrap. Everybody’s got their priorities.
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I was apparently the import mule for my Asian friends who crave a certain crunchy chili oil that is difficult to import into the US.
Only recently did I find out that it’s actually illegal to import certain brands of it, especially from the PRC, because of various convenient bans on meat products.
My guess is that it’s less likely to be confiscated when you’re landing at LAX on a flight from Singapore, but they can find a new crunchy chili oil pork condiment mule in the future. :-)
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What kind of pasta?!
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Those little vermicelli noodles that kids love.
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“little vermicelli noodles”
Like for chicken soup? I know realize I know nothing of how various forms of pasta are used in Ukrainian cooking….
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We serve them with butter and canned kilka (little fish). Still my favorite dish ever. Obviously, Klara is horrified by the kilka aspect.
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Everyone has a culinary horror they cherish.
Mine is tomoshiraga somen in chicken soup, especially tom kha gai soup.
A large crowd of Japanese culinary traditionalists appears: “But WHY are you dunking our cold somen noodles in hot broth … and in Thai chicken coconut soup???”
Because I don’t like cold noodles, but I like buckwheat somen hot and spiced up a bit?
Try to cope. :-)
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I understand the bacon, especially if it’s pea meal bacon. That stuff is delicious.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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