Ochazuke

What is it? Ochazuke is green tea over rice with some flavoring such as dried plum, seaweed, or salmon. Personally, I like the plum. For those who like recipes, make Japanese sticky rice and buy a packet of the instant mix. Pour packet over hot rice and add some hot water. Eat. I made this bowl myself. Yummy. I took the picture with my cell phone.

For various reasons I have been thinking about travel lately. It has gotten to be a real hassle. If you travel too much the sense of adventure is lost and it does that.

I was at the airport the other day and saw something I haven't seen in a long time. There was a tearful family saying goodbye to a loved one and clogging up the entrance. Of course you used to see this all the time before travel became so commonplace and they put up the metal detectors and screened people out of the concourse. Now I travel half way around the world like it was a trip to Walmart and leave an email to tell people where I went instead of a note on the counter.

I was reminded of this when I took the first helicopter trip out to the Diana Platform a few years ago. I got up early and drove down to Galveston, way too early for anybody in my family to get up. We had a couple of 100 workers from the fabrication yard who were going out for a one month tour. I was amazed - tearful families and it was 5:30 in the morning. They had never seen their father leave for any time before.

In Qatar we are building a camp for 20,000 workers who will be there for a year at a time. The workers will be coming from India, Pakistan, Phillipines, etc. Many will have never left their home. There will probably be some more tears at the airport.