Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Greatest thing

[Forgive me if I've already written about this subject. Bad memory +
many entries + bad internet connection so I can't check = the
occasional lapse.]

I never understood that American cliche "the greatest thing since
sliced bread." Until I came to Zambia and bought beautiful loaves of
fluffy white bread that disintegrate into giant piles of crumbs when I
try to slice them. (The story is that because of ever-present power
shortages in Chipata, from whence our bread is imported, the bread
gets baked but usually not sliced.) Sometimes the loaf holds together
enough that I can actually create "pieces." Unfortunately, due to my
lack of depth perception and an unsteady carving hand, the slices are
inch-thick uneven wedges that make jaw-defying sandwiches. The cut
surface is impossible to spread anything on, so we resort to glopping
on the peanut butter, hoping to maintain an intact slab.

Since I was already on a hunt for the elusive tomato sauce today, I
held out for bread while visiting my three regular shops. The last
one, The Pink Shop, had a huge pile of bread. Two of the loaves were
sliced. Hallelujah! (I only bought one. The only bigger tragedy than
unsliced bread is bread that gets moldy before you have a chance to
eat it.)

It's the little things. Like thin little slices of bread. This calls
for burgers for dinner!

1 comment:

Corri Flaker said...

did I hear that right? burgers for dinner? maybe I missed a post, but i thought you were a vegetarian?... you sound quite excited!