chick-y muffins

We lived in Tokyo for a short time and I am here to tell you that if you aren't Japanese you might find the cuisine a little monotonous after a while. We sometimes really missed American food (of course they have Kentucky Fried-o Chicken Des and Mac-o Denaldo's but even back then that wasn't what we considered food) and so we sought out anything that more or less resembled an item from the States. The Mr. (more precisely The Boyfriend at that time) on a mission for a lunch that wasn't served in a bento box came across a chicken salad sandwich near the ANA Inter-Continental Hotel called the chick-y muffin. You probably wouldn't expect to find a lot of mayo in Japan, but you'd be wrong. The Mr. just about turned into a Chick-y muffin and so many nights he would come home from work with the telltale signs still on his breath like lipstick on a collar - and no amount of encouragement from me could result in turning him from his beloved.

Although no home chef at that time, I was trying to find a way to feed us on a budget in a foreign land and so took to watching cooking shows after work to get ideas. Understand that my Japanese was so bad that I caught about every 20th word on the show, but luckily for me Japanese daytime cooking show hosts all speak the international language of mayonnaise, and ketchup. I am not kidding you, the mayo was Kewpie doll brand, with a QP doll logo only spelled different to avoid international copyright law infringement. Set in a "typical" japanese kitchen, the show came complete with a wide-eyed 1950's style housewife dressed in a ruffled red and white checked apron who ooohhed and ahhhed continuously while some tubby older man instructed her on all the ways Kewpie mayo or ketchup would enhance her cooking. If only she weren't a woman she might have been capable of figuring this out for herself, but alas! A man is required to tell her what to do - and to tell all the women watching tv as they lovingly iron their husband's kimono (with hot river stones gathered by hand at the base of Mount Fuji )so would be perfect for him to don the moment he arrives home after a long hard day of working, smoking Lucky 7's, drinking Suntory Whiskey and snogging with his mistress. You get the picture. The show never helped me much, until recently.

The other day the kids and I had our stand-by Chicken for dinner (boneless, skinless breasts marinated in a generous amount of decent olive oil, a really generous amount of chopped garlic, sea salt and lime juice, grilled) and later I used the left overs to replicate the chick-y muffin for the Mr. when he got home. Simple - chopped chicken, ground pepper, mayo and a ton of chopped red onion on a toasted Thomas' English Muffin. Made him happy as a clam, no - happier, more like happy as a happy happy toy toy railroad girl. It was also a bunch easier than gathering river stones to make him feel welcomed home.