Yesterday we discovered two new foods, and this is how it happened. Both these discoveries involved my youngest daughter; she is only one year in the United States from Taiwan; she is eleven years old.

For breakfast we usually have scrammbled eggs and pan-fried toast. To make pan-fried toast, we butter the bread, then fry it til golden brown in our large, black, iron frying pan. My oldest daughter and I love to slather the butter on. But PX, with her asian taste buds, has not developed a real taste for butter; in fact, she would rather not have any. So when making her toast in the morning, we pan fry her toast dry or mostly dry ( a little butter get on the toast).

Yesterday morning she surprised me; she said, “Mom, you can put on a little butter and please…can you cook it until it’s crunchy?” I threw a questioning glance her way. “I cooked it that way last night,” she explained. Then she added sheepishly, “I was reading my Narnia book and forgot about my toast…(smile)…But it got brown and crunchy; I really like it.” So, in honor of PX’s “accidental” discovery of a new cooking technique, I call it, “Narnia-Style Crunchy Toast”.

Karioke chicken developed along completely different lines. I took the girls to a Japanese sushi restaurant for lunch; it was a real treat. I ordered what I always, invariably order, Teriyaki Chicken and Tempura – yum! We were sitting at the table chatting about our orders and PX asked, “What is it?”
“What is what?” I asked.
“Your food, what is it?”
“Teriyaki Chicken,” I answered.
“Teriyaki?”
“Yes, teriyaki.”
Again she said, “Teriyaki? that’s funny…what is teriyaki?”
“It’s a flavor,” I replied, “like soy sauce…or hoisin.”
“That’s funny!” she said, “Teriyaki puppets!”
“Teriyaki puppets?” I asked.
“Yes, Mom, teriyaki puppets.”
(Blank look on Mom’s face.)
“Mom, remember the puppets were singing!”
Now I’m really lost. She is excitedly and somewhat impatiently trying to communicate “something” to me – I just don’t know what it is.
“puppets? singing?” I queried.
“Mom!” with some exasperation, “remember!…Cranky Hank! The puppets were singing teriyaki.”
OH!!! It all became clear. She meant “karioke”. The puppets were singing karioke.

That might seem just as unintelligible to you, but it was perfectly clear to me. My daughter was referring to something we experienced together at the beginning of the Summer. Our family: my husband and I, and our two daughters (both middle-schoolers), along with four other middle-schoolers formed a puppet troupe with the specific purpose of preparing a series of puppet skits for pre-school children during the week of Vacation Bible School at our church. “Cranky Hank” was one of the notorious characters in our puppet skits; and yes, the puppets did sing karioke!