The new school-year is two-weeks-old now here in Tucson...but I have nothing particularly insightful to write on this Monday afternoon...
...other than that on the way home this afternoon, listening to NPR, I gleaned this piece of trivia: today is the 50th anniversary of instant ramen; yep, on August 25th, 1958, the first package of chicken ramen went on sale in Japan. I've eaten my share of ramen (who hasn't?)--doctored up Korean-style with egg and hot sauce, and so I'm thankful that five decades ago, the convenience-noodle-revolution began.
I still have a hard time saying "ramen" though; I grew up hearing the Korean pronunciation, which is more like "l/rah-myuhn."
When I lived in Paris, one of my favorite cheap-meal hangouts was on the Rue Ste.-Anne: le restaurant japonais Higuma. (photo below courtesy of the link)
It was a true Asiatic noodle-house, full of Japanese and Korean ex-pats, (I could even get kimchee there!), just a few blocks away from the wedding-cake-esque Opéra Garnier. No 'instant' here though; you could sit at the counter (kind of like at Waffle House!) and watch the guys cooking the noodles and broth...and voilà! un bol chaud de ramen!
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The other night we saw some friends from out-of-town, who were staying at a house that belongs to some of their relatives. We went over, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of the pool with my cell-phone-camera:
...evening among the saguaros in the foothills west of Tucson, ahh...Desert-modernist-palace chic...
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Yesterday, a drive up Mt. Lemmon, to escape the heat. It was 100 or above all last week, and for most of the first two weeks of the school-year the a/c in my classroom was not working properly. Thirty adolescents in a humid classroom day after day--less than 'fresh.' So the drive up the mountain was a relief. About halfway up is this vista point, looking toward Thimble Peak (5323'); the mid-elevation grasslands are still green from the monsoon rains...
And today, the clouds returned; a cool day in the 80's with occasional drizzle (!) to get me back into classroom-mode.
Noodles: Nouilles: Fideos.
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