Saturday 4 July 2009

An epicurean dilemma

Thank you all for your warm welcome to Blogland. It's nice to finally be pulled into this world -albeit on the coat tails of my little sister ;-)

I have a dilemma:

We're supposedly being taken to experience Shabu Shabu 'New Zealand' style on Thursday night by our Japanese friend.
Shabu Shabu is described most easily as Japanese fondue - sans cheese! Basically one is given a communal platter full of thinly sliced food - meat and vegetables - and using chops sticks one dips one's chosen morsel into the communal boiling broth to cook. At the end, noodles are cooked in the broth and then everyone gets some to drink like soup! Chances are you will rarely see Shabu Shabu on a menu as apparently you need to be Japanese and/or know the chef to get them to cook it!
Now my concern is we are in the middle of a swine flu epidemic and it all sounds a little too close for comfort for me!

We have also been asked to go 10 pin bowling with a New Zealand friend on the same night. Usually this night would win hands down, but my concern is, once again, the food factor. All I can envisage being on offer is hot dogs and fries. Not my favourite meal!

So my dilemma is

.... should we go to Shabu Shabu with our Japanese friend - the one we met in Berlin and risk certain swine flu exposure - or should we go bowling with our Kiwi friend - the one we met in the USA - and risk salmonella from the bowling alley foods?

All input welcome ;-)

5 comments:

trash said...

I say Shabu shabu followed by tenpin bowling ;-)

Locket Pocket said...

Stay home and knit????

Mrs Moog said...

Good sisterly support from Trashy there!

I think I'd do the bowling but eat beforehand - the shabu shabu sounds too much like Russian roulette for my liking! Depends how much you want to catch swine flu - maybe catch it now and build up your resistance?!!

xxx

T@iy@ said...

Here's the thing... swine flu IS a possibility. I got swine flu and I didn't have any communal dinners. :) I simply lived my life, and my daughter and I got the swine flu. I fully believe in the importance of being CAUTIOUS in all things regarding sickness... I don't like to use public restrooms simply because of the germs. That being said... I also think that you can't live your life based on a fear of possibly getting sick. Something like that sounds like a great experience(although it might gross me out too much to try, not based on the swine flu possibility).

So my thought is that you should do what you want, based on what you want... and not worry overtly about swine flu. Chances are, if you are going to get swine flu you are going to get it from other source. So if Shabu Shabu sounds good to you.. try it!

Also- I have asthma and I had the swine flu. It was irritating, it was slightly debilitating regarding my lungs, it lasted awhile... HOWEVER... it was very livable and my 16 month old daughter and I got through it just fine. (That is NOT an encouragement to go get it! Please don't if you can avoid it! I am simply stating that if you do get it, there is a great possibility that it will be irritating, but that you would be just fine!)

Whew! That is my long-winded advice. Hopefully it helps... and doesn't irritate you!

Mama said...

Um...at the risk of sounding not-so-nice, LIVE A LITTLE!