Culture Shock

Little Spam, Big Spam

I never knew there were two sizes of Spam.  I remember cooking Spam in our rice cooker in the dorms.  We put the pot in the cooker, pressed the button, and hoped that the bottom would get hot enough to sear the delectable slices of processed meat.  It took forever.  Then I got smart and brought my mom's electric grill which went a whole lot faster!

I think college was one of the first times I realized that everyone doesn't have a rice cooker.  And everyone doesn't instinctly know how to cook rice.  Then I noticed that some people buy steamed rice when we ordered Chinese or Thai take-out.  Buy steamed rice?!  Absurd...

Which reminds me of another shocker...  You know that stool that has a spikey little tool attached to a 2x4 for grating coconut (if you don't know)?  When I was a kid, I used to think that ALL families had that thing.  I also thought that all families had giant machetes for slicing the tops off young coconuts.  For Colleen and me, coming home to see our dad in the backyard hacking away at coconuts with an 18-inch machete was all too commonplace.  And we kept it in the kitchen with all of the normal kitchen knives.

Haha, one day I want to see my dad climb up a coconut tree in the Philippines.  I hope he isn't too old by the time I can get out there...