I am in a serious food rut right now. My freezer in Oregon was full of good stuff. I cooked things in huge batches a few times a week so I would have good stuff to eat and then freeze the leftovers.

Staple number one: verde sauce. Main ingredient of verde sauce? Tomatillos. They don't have tomatillos in Hong Kong. I have asked everybody.

Staple number two: soup or stew. I have not made the time to make soup or stew once since we have been here to begin stocking the freezer. I used to always have 2 or three different kinds from which to choose. I put my foot down and tonight I made a pot of beef stew. For myself. It was awesome.

Staple number 3: salad. Organic greens are terribly expensive here. For a bag of lettuce or a small plastic tub it costs around $5-7 usd and most often it doesn't look very fresh... And I don't trust my fridge. I still haven't found the sweet spot for the temperature that will keep my drinks cold and not frost bite my produce. So I haven't been buying salad. And salad dressing? Selection is not good. Paul Newman Sesame Ginger, where are you? I know i could make my own easily but when I don't have the greens, why bother? I used to eat salad daily...

I could go on... there's plenty of food here in HK. Plenty of brands I recognize as well as entirely new things I have never seen in my life and have no idea what to do with (which is exciting except I am a little too busy to delve into brand new food right this minute).

I am really struggling to find my stride trying to settle into a routine of house holding that works. My kids aren't getting enough sleep. Afternoon school and all the extra physical activity during the day leaves them dirty and tired at the end of the day and they can't seem to get enough hours of sleep at night.

But aside from overtired kids I am also dealing with not having a trunk in which to put my groceries. I am very used to frequent trips to the grocery for a few items to complete my dinner menu. But I am also accustomed to driving to the grocery once a week to buy a ton of stuff. And actually having a place to put that ton of stuff when I got home. That is key. So here, I don't have space for storage of bulk purchases so I can't really make bulk purchases. And along with that the food supply is kind of unpredictable.

Like I said--there is always enough food! Don't get the impression the shelves are ever bare or anything. That is not the case at all. But the shelves are always different... Like my kids love apples. In their ideal world they would each get an apple a day. I am weird about apples and will only buy them organic. I haven't seen any organic apples in over a week. Tons and tons of apples in every variety. None organic. Bananas? Today they only HAD organic. I finally broke down and bought some unverifiable apples. They were unwaxed and looked right. The label was all in French. No idea what their status is. I tend to trust the French when it comes to food though. They don't mess around with food.

I buy the pints of Haagen Dazs ice cream. Our allotment is one pint a week. Do not tell my kids. They do not know this. The grocery always has pints of Haagen Dazs. But what you never can guess is what the flavors will be. Jonesing for coffee? Nope, sorry. But they had it last week!!! Ugh. Usually there are no more than 5 or 6 flavor choices but 2 of them are always Green Tea and Mango. I am not sure if this is because we're in Asia and these are the most popular flavors or if it's that those pints don't move and I am seeing the very same containers each week...

I'll have an idea for a meal. I have 4 out of 7 things I need to complete the meal. I get excited about the meal. I go to buy the other 3 fresh ingredients and can only find 2 of the 3. And the meal just isn't worth making without that one thing. Like how can you make a thai dish without basil? It just wouldn't be that great. How can you make Mexican food without sour cream? Why bother?

It keeps it interesting and really forces you to be creative. Two things that I usually strive to be in the kitchen but it's not as fun when it's not by choice. Ah well. Live and learn. I am slowly figuring what will work and what won't as far as menu planning but I've got a long way to go.

It felt really good to make that stew tonight! But it was funny peeling and chopping the Japanese (organic) carrots because they are big and fat and look different. And they taste a little different too but kind of in a good way.

And buying the meat was a trip. The meat counter didn't have stew meat. I was using my own personal short hand English and sign language/Italian hand gesturing to ask if he knew what meat I could use or if they had it somewhere else. He just shook his head no. If you've seen Big Business it was like Lily Tomlin trying to speak Italian to the guy she thinks is Italian and he mutters something like "Ah I don't know... you foreigners" exasperated with her for not speaking English. This poor butcher is thinking the same damn thing dealing with all these people who don't speak his language all day long.

Anyway I found the meat packaged on a saran wrapped tray with all the other meats not at the butcher counter. Perfectly square cubes of meat that didn't really look like stew meat (too lean) but it was close enough (and it was good--worked great). But you know how in the USA the stew meat is just jumbled in a pile when you buy it? Not here. These packages of meat had each cube separate and in perfect rows laid out like tiles under the saran wrap. I found this amusing. Odd. But amusing.