I also bought some glutinous rice. People in Laos eat glutinous rice very often, and they even say that if they don't eat it then they would not be Laotian. Yet there is no such thing like what we call rice cake in Japan. They steam glutinous rice in a steamer, but it looks quite different from the one we use in Japan. In the Laotian way, they put the rice in a pyramid-shaped bamboo basket, and put it into a deep pot with a narrow opening to steam it. After that, they put the steamed glutinous rice into a cylinderical basket, put the lid on, and serve it on a dining table. Then they eat it by rolling it into a bite-size ball with their hands. It's not sticky at all, and quite hard to chew. It's good. The glutinous rice is about one third the price of ordinary rice. It is also glutinous rice that my neighbors offer to begging priests.

I had glutinous rice the day before yesterday, but there was some leftover as I couldn't finish it. When Simon came to the house the following morning, she said "Let's do this then," and started to make something with it. Rolling each little piece of rice flat and round, she dried them in the sun. Since the sun was blazing down strongly, it was such a nice day for sun-drying. They became completely dried by evening, and Simon deep-fried them in oil. Yes, she made fried rice crackers. We sprinkled salt and ate them hot. When I said "We also eat something like this in Japan," we laughed together.

I found a brazier at Thatloung Market, and I bought it together with charcoal. Then as soon as I got home that day, I prepared skewered meats. The tasty smell was hung in the air, and I had the meat nicely roasted to the perfect degree. I heard that this kind of charcoal brazier is often used in the area where propane gas is unavailable, or by the people who cannot afford using gas. For me, charcoal-broiling is extremely luxurious.

The other day, I saw fresh kikurage Jew's ear for the first time in my life. Although I was aware that Simon sometimes cooked with it, I completely had no idea that it wasn't the dried ones. It looked like a bracket fungus, and there was some soil on the part near the root. It appeared as if it had just been picked from a tree! I heard that you can find it almost everywhere in Laos and it's quite cheap as well. As it's also bamboo shoot season there are some very delicious ones. After China and Thailand, Laos has the greatest variety of bamboos.

At about 6:00 a.m. when the sky slowly gets brighter, there'd be a bicycle with a big aluminum box passing by as ringing out the sound of a bugle. That's a "baguette vendor." Perhaps it's due to the effect of the French colonial period, but there seem to be quite many Laotians who eat the long and thin French bread for breakfast. At a stall on the street corner, the vendor sells baguettes with butter or jelly and a sandwich with vegetables or sausage. When it gets around 10:00 a.m., you'd see a bicycle with a big parasol on the roof rack running slowly selling ice lollies and juices. This one comes as ringing out the "ting-a-ling" sound of a bell.

Yesterda, I was invited to a farm owned by my husband's secretary. Fish, chickens, and ducks were being raised there. Well, I received a souvenir, but what do you think it was? It was a live chicken. As I hate birds and I can't even stand looking at them, I could barely say "Thank you for giving me such a valuable thing" but nothing else. We are keeping it in a storeroom for now, but it's still alive and flapping its wings sometimes. My husband imagines "It must be very goodÉ," and he obviously wants Simon to cook it. But as I don't have the heart to eat it, I'm thinking to ask Simon to take it home.

Translated by Maiko Noda