Research Question

Will I write a better-than-average blog post after ordering delivery from Caffe Swish? I got shrimp and vegetable tempura as an appetizer ($7.50) and grilled chicken with mashed potato in spicy garlic sauce -- Japanese-style, according to the menu ($10.95). And the salad with the entree, rather than miso soup. (Salad = lettuce.)

My Chinese friend's reaction to hearing that I was ordering Swish: "nasty!" But then: "actually japanese food at swish is not too bad..."

Columbia Cottage does not have these things but CC has fortune cookies... So I might or might not write better blog posts after eating Swish's Japanese food, but I will never learn that "[I] have a deep interest in all that is artistic," or that "Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm," as I have by ordering Sesame Chicken from CC. And I can now ask a Chinese speaker for a tasty bedtime snack of "niu-nai and you-yu" (milk and squid, apparently). And then there was the other fortune I saved, but can't find at the moment, that said something like, "Stop searching for happiness. It is sitting right beside you." I thought I could use that someday in lieu of an engagement ring, for which the going rate now is apparently 1/4 of annual salary. The fortune is at least as romantic as "I want you to cook miso soup for me for the rest of my life," which this article claims to be a typical Japanese proposal line. (I personally would ask for spaghetti or french toast.)

(But my Chinese friend's reaction to hearing that I sometimes order from CC: "omg!!!!")

A Glass a Day for the Heart

Hakone. Des Japonais fêtent l’arrivée du Beaujolais et l’ouverture d’un « Beaujolais Nouveau Spa ». (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi). Link here.