Mom had learned to cook a few things while they were married and living in Japan. Naturally, the things she learned to cook were based on what she could buy there, which were all familiar ingredients to a Japanese person. The method of grocery shopping was also familiar.veggie stand, meat market... you know. NO grocery store that carried everything in nice neat packages with labels.
The first years of living in American were full of learning. I remember mom telling me stories about going to the commissary on base to grocery shop. My dad says that he got sick of steak for dinner during that time. Why? Well you remember that part about mom not knowing how to cook? Steak is truly one of the easiest things to cook. You just season the things and slap them in a pan or on a grill. Also, it is really easy to recognize a package of steak. It looks like what it is. They ate a LOT of steak.
Not knowing English affected her shopping. She couldn't understand what packages said so she shopped by what the product looked like. This didn't always work out so well. Just because a package LOOKS like chicken, doesn't mean it IS chicken as she once found out. She had opened a package of 'chicken' and started preparing it when my dad got home from work and came in to see what was for dinner, probably hoping it wasn't steak again. He saw the package and then made a comment about how he didn't know that Japanese people ate those. Of course Japanese people eat chicken! Then he informed her that it was indeed, NOT chicken. It was frog legs. She wouldn't touch them after she found out and I imagine that dad had to finish cooking his own dinner that night.
I don't think that she went grocery shopping without him again until she had learned a lot more English.
Next time - The Sears charge card
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