The gallon of tahini

I went diving again last week. It was the first time I’ve gone since I’ve been back. We did the aquarium dive among others, the same one I did before I left. Once again, the animals were abundant. I don’t think it was quite as good as last time but still enough critters to satisfy me. I had a few complications because somehow I didn’t realize that my mask was not fitted properly on my face and it kept letting in water. Due to continuously trying to clear my mask, I used up my air faster than usual and had to borrow air from others. It wasn’t dangerous, just a bit embarrassing. The rate at which a diver goes through air is used as a rough benchmark of his skill. More skillful divers can control themselves and sustain air longer. I definitely lacked skills that day.

If it isn’t abundantly clear from my posts, the variety of foodstuffs available in the Marshall Islands isn’t particularly great. What this does is create a packrat mentality. Any new item of food is immediately gobbled up, even if it’s rather superfluous, simply because it’s new and will soon run out. This phenomenon is best illustrated by the gallon of tahini now sitting in my fridge.

Middle Eastern cuisine isn’t particularly popular in the Marshall Islands. In fact, it’s non-existent. However, one of the local store owners woke up one day and decided she wanted some tahini. Thus, she ordered a crate of tahini for her store. After keeping a few jugs for herself, she put the rest of the tahini on sale. I saw the jugs sitting there about two weeks ago and thought, “Hmm, tahini, that’d be nice to have.” Then I thought, “Wait, I’ve never even used tahini before, and there’s a fucking gallon of it! What am I going to do with all of that tahini?” I mustered up enough will power not to buy the tahini that first day, but alas, my will power would not last. After convincing myself that tahini could substitute for Asian sesame paste, and that I could easily cook enough sesame paste based dishes to justify the purchase of a fucking gallon of tahini, I broke down and bought it for 16 bucks.

The good news is that tahini actually does act as a fair substitute for Asian sesame paste. The bad news is that there’s still a gallon of it to use. After making my first bowl of cold sesame noodles, I realized that it would take roughly 600 bowls to use up that gallon of tahini. Oh well, at least I have tahini!

Christmas is approaching, and once again I’m sweating despite it being December. I’m going to an outer island before coming back to Majuro for New Year’s. It should be a nice get away.

New pics in the photo album.