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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

CHEESE!



I love cheese.  It's delicious.  It's nutritious.  Cheese.

Imagine my surprise when I suddenly found it difficult to find.  We have, what, 1000s of kinds of cheese?  Regular stores in Japan have like two.

NO.

No cheddar.  No colby.  No Tillamook Extra Sharp.  Just...this thing they call "hotel cheese".


Mmmm.  Hotel Cheese.


You can find familiar cheeses in specialty stores, though.  I was ecstatic upon finding some mozzarella.  In a 3.5 oz. package.  (That's like one slice of cheese pizza.)  For about $4. 

Not ok.
Today, almost totally by accident, I discovered why the Japanese don't eat cheese.  It's NOT because:
a) Cheese makes your sweat stinky
b) Cheese is high in cholesterol
c) Japanese are from another planet

Nope. It's because Japanese are genetically lactose intolerant!!

And there's your useless fact for the day.  And now I go to enjoy my $4 bite of mozzarella.  Next time you're eating something cheesy delicious, like fried cheese, extra cheese pizza, mac'n'smack, or any other of the limitless varieties of cheesed out dishes, ponder the fact that somewhere far away, someone is lamenting the forced absence of cheese in their diet.

3 comments:

  1. the little broha (私の芋等さん) says she knows your pain. the nate says all of humanity started out as lactose intolerant, but the x-men came along with their genetic mutation for lactose tolerance. and now a good percentage of the population are mutants with the power of lactase. woohoo!

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  2. Haha yeay I'm a mutant!! When are you coming to visit?!

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  3. "I'll give you all this gold for a piece of cheese!"

    Castaway Ben Gunn offered the gold treasure he had found for a piece of cheese, in the novel Treasure Island by R.L. Stevenson.

    I hope Ben got the good stuff, perhaps something like Cabot Extra Sharp cheddar from Vermont. EA

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