What’s today? …October?

It appears Time Out London reads Reneedezvous and stole their email subject line from the title of my last post:

Or, you know, we both came up with the same obvious Game of Thrones pun. I like to think it was the former though.

So I have no idea what day it is. A lot of people have that problem after a Monday bank holiday, but for me it’s more about grocery shopping. Every Monday I do my weekly grocery shop, which involves dragging my little trolley to at least 4 different stores over the course of two hours. But since Monday was a holiday and Stephen was home, we went to see X-Men, so I didn’t shop. And then Tuesday it was insanely windy and rainy, so I didn’t run or shop. So I did my grocery shopping on Wednesday, which made Wednesday feel like Monday, and I did my long (8.5-mile!) run today, which makes today feel like Tuesday, even though it’s Thursday.
I was able to put off my shopping because I just discovered Itsu’s half price sale. Am I the last person in the UK to know about this? Itsu is a sushi fast food joint by the people behind Pret a Manger (which no one can pronounce so we all agree to just call it “Pret”). It’s really popular with the 9 to 5 lunch crowd because they have fresh ready-made sushi boxes and salads for takeaway. But since they focus on freshness, they can’t carry over today’s leftovers into tomorrow, so they sell it all for half price a half hour before closing. I know what you’re thinking: half-priced leftover sushi? Isn’t that food poisoning waiting to happen? I was a little worried about that too, but it’s the same food they were selling full price a minute before the sale, and the Internet assured me that sushi is good for 24 hours. But that brings me to my next point: who are these people who literally fill a shopping basket with a good 10 boxes of sushi?! Do they just really like sushi? Are they throwing a house party catered by Itsu half-priced sushi? Do they realize that fresh raw fish is best when it’s, well, fresh? And do they realize by essentially wiping out the stock 5 minutes before the half-price sale even starts, the rest of us are stuck getting either the salmon and tuna box or an unsealed salmon box? (Yes, I was so desperate and craving sushi that I bought a box that was not sealed. This was 6 days ago and I have not died or been violently ill yet, so I think I’m in the clear). This was also the Friday before the bank holiday so I think things were especially crazy. When I went Tuesday night I was spoilt for choice, but that also could have been because the weather was wretched. More half-price sushi for me then! I’ve been several times now and I think I’m finally figuring out the art of the Itsu half-price sale. You have to show up a little before the sale starts and just stand there awkwardly holding your spoils (no pun intended!) until the 30-min-to-close mark. You also will find slim pickings if you go on a Friday night.

And now here’s a red panda inexplicably eating what appears to be sushi out of a box:

ToMAYto, toMAHto

So I bought some tomatoes the other day. I know what you’re thinking — “So what?” The thing is, I hate tomatoes. Every time I go to a restaurant, whether it’s Taco Bell, Panera or somewhere fancy, I always amend my order with “no tomato.” I don’t like their taste or slimy texture. Ketchup I love, tomato sauce I like, but I can’t get behind tomatoes themselves.

But then the other day we were at a Japanese restaurant that gave us some free tomatoes as an appetizer. They were sliced and drizzled with some kind of sauce, perhaps balsamic and soy. I had already finished the edamame appetizer and was still hungry — hungry enough to eat a tomato slice. And it wasn’t bad. I didn’t like it enough to eat another slice, but didn’t hate it enough to spit it out. It served its purpose of keeping me busy until my main arrived, and I promptly forgot about the tomato. … until a few days later. I suddenly started craving tomato. So much so that I went to Tesco and bought a whole pack of tomatoes and cooked them with onion, lentils and balsamic vinegar for lunch. It was delicious. But how does that happen? How can you go from detesting something to craving it? It’s happened to me once before. I used to hate sushi. The thought of eating raw fish seemed like the grossest thing ever. Until one day when I was super hungry during my job in college. One of my coworkers had picked up a sushi roll at the student union and was eating it right next to me. And suddenly all I could think about was sushi. Even the soy sauce seemed delectable. So the minute I got off work, I went to the student union and got a California roll  — and it was magical, artificial crab and all. It took me awhile to advance from rolls named after US cities and states (California and Philly rolls were my standbys) to actual slices of raw fish. In fact, I think that only happened because I was in China once and they put a slice of sashimi (raw fish) in front of me and I felt compelled to at least try it so as not to be rude. But now I eat sushi and sashimi at least two or three times a week. I wonder if tomatoes will somehow make it into the rotation (although I still have to scoop out the slimy stuff and I still don’t think I’d enjoy them on a sandwich, but baby steps…)