"FEEETTAAAAAA!!!!" or, My Salads are Complete

I think everyone, regardless of whether or not they read the book or saw the movie, knows that Marlon Brando's character Stanley screams out "STEEELLLAAAAA!!!!" in "A Streetcar Named Desire."

"The Simpsons" have immortalized it with Homer yelling out something of the sort. I don't watch the show but Chen told me that it was on it, that's how she knows about it. So, the whole world knows.

So imagine what was going on in my head when I went to this supermarket/mall place with Chen after class and I saw:

FETA CHEESE.

With a GREEK FLAG on it.

This is important - when one buys feta cheese, one gets the feta cheese from Greece. Nothing else will do. It wil cost a bit more but there is a big difference in the taste. Greek goats are just better. Hehe.

I have been missing the following things:

My great-grandmother's olives,
Taramasalata
Dolmades
and
FETA CHEESE

Forget the larger portions and the prospect of a steak - that can be found, even at the Shop 99 - you just have to get alot of 99yen little steaks and then you get your big steak. I want my greek food, dammit. I have found only ONE greek restaurant and that's in TOKYO. Guess where my first stop will be.

Getting my great-grandmother's kalamata olives are obviously impossible, unless I either a) make a trip to the olive orchard in Sparta (they were a part of her dowry) or b) call up Theo Stavros and ask him when the next batch of olives and olive oil is coming to my house. (They come by the keg. Our "keggers" involve olives and olive oil, with the occasional soda bottle filled with tsipuro inside.)

I was able to get taramasalata on a regular basis in London - obivously as I was in Europe. Dolmades were a bit expensive. I think that those two are a lost cause when it comes to Japan - as was feta cheese. Or so I thought. I saw jars of the stuff from TheFlyingPig.com (site that gets the stuff from Costco Japan and ships it to the rest of Japan) but I wasn't sure of the brand.

Then - the cheese counter at the supermarket.

"FEETTAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

OH.MY.GOD. They have FETA in JAPAN.

There were two kinds - the first packed in herbs and olive oil and incidentally, made by the same company that is on TheFlyingPig.com. There was a little Danish flag on that so I thought, "Ok, maybe I will try TheFlyingPig stuff, it won't kill me." (The price isn't that bad either). Then I see the little Greek flag. And then I get sticker shock.

200 grams of feta = 800 yen. That is about EIGHT DOLLARS.

Holy crap! I can get a POUND of the imported stuff even at a fancy supermarket like Whole Foods for eight bucks. The Japanese supermarket system has no justice. Even down to a stinking apple.

I bought it though. I had to. I need my feta. And now, my salads are complete.