accident and anticipation

at the end of the month i'll be traveling to bali to visit my little brother, who is working there. i haven't seen him in over a year and my parents will meet us there, so i am obviously looking forward to this trip. and the food isn't making me any less excited; i fell in love with indonesian food the very first time i tried it. imagine my delight when an indonesian friend invited me over one night to experiment with a recipe for pepes tahu, or steamed tofu in banana leaves. i think our parcels came out beautifully! we ate it with plain white rice and my new favourite rice condiment; sambal badjak. i hope to eat many more meals like this in bali; can anyone recommend an authentic cooking class there? P:


some good news: a friend of mine recently gave birth to a baby boy! i visited her in the hospital and promised to make her some seaweed soup so she could regain a bit of the recently lost nutrients. so a few weeks later, i came by with all the ingredients and we had dinner together. in return, she gave me some corn tortillas that her parents had brought from mexico the previous week. i was ecstatic! one of the cuisines i miss most here is definitely mexican. i used the lovely tortillas to make galbi tacos. the meat was accompanied by pickled carrots, cherry tomatoes, refried beans, cabbage, and gochujang. the dane ate two of the korean tacos and approved. but i think it would have been better with some kimchi... it reminded me about my trip to california in april; i'm so relieved to have the tickets booked, it's been too long since i was in the states last!

the bad news: if you're squeamish, you may not want to read the next paragraph.

unfortunately i got into a cycling accident 2 nights ago, so i will probably show up in bali to greet my family somewhat scarred. i was riding out to meet some friends at the pub on a friday night and some guy was snaking all over the bike lane. his friend rang his bike bell (to signal that someone wanted to pass), he moved out of the way, but when i tried to overtake him, he swerved back into me. i don't remember much of the fall except skidding forever on my face and something landing on my ankle. a nice guy (not the one that hit me...) helped me up and reminded me to exchange numbers with the other guy, even giving me his own number in case i needed a witness. i was keeping my cool until he said, "i think a bit of your tooth is missing."

i realized now how vain i am and yet i was totally taking my teeth for granted. i wouldn't say they are perfect (not exactly pearly white) but i wore braces for about 5 years and a retainer at night for several years after that. when i got home and saw that i had a chipped tooth, i cried and cried. the dane came home from work immediately to tend to me and of course gave me the old "well it could have been a lot worse. glad you're okay." i yelled at him then, being cranky from scrubbing asphalt out of my chin and picking a fragment of my own tooth out of my upper lip (good heavens!)... but he is so right. i escaped a bad cycling accident with just some scrapes and bruises (that will go away eventually), a chipped tooth (which can be fixed easily and hopefully the other guy will pay for it...), a fat lip, a tiny bit off my chin bone, and a twisted ankle. i could easily have broken my leg or disfigured my face for life. i suppose i can embrace the fact that this happened for a reason. i was taking big bites, using stairs, having an unscarred face, and just walking like a normal person completely for granted. hopefully things can soon go back to the way they were, before i take off to indonesia. but until the swelling in my lips goes down and i get my tooth fixed, it'll be soft food for a while. =_=