Insufferable

I'm sorry. I can't help it. I'm becoming one of those insufferable people who never shuts up about something they've read or listened to or whatnot anything in the hopes of seeming interesting... or, rather, interested. But this is the last time I'll mention this particular book or author, I swear (especially since I've moved on to finished Bodily Harm*).

One of several tropes in Coin Locker Babies is rice omelettes**. There's no detailed description of how the dish is constructed, other than the fact that it involves rice, eggs, and ketchup (ew). My first thought was that the rice was mixed in with the egg, which was then fried in a sheet, spread with the cloying red condiment, and rolled up, but I wasn't sure. To the Internet! Turns out that in Japanese it's called omurice, and it's fried rice folded up in a thin omelette, which is then topped with the ketchup. My version: a zucchini and Chinese black mushroom fried rice (using reconstituted dried mushrooms) with Sriracha instead of ketchup. I was going to photograph it, but the amount of Sriracha I put on basically made it look like I bled all over my dinner. This irked me because I think I did a darn good job folding the omelette, but what can I tell you; it's not spicy enough unless it makes your eyes water. Here's a photo of a rice omelette vaguely the size and shape of the one I made (although I didn't do the pretty slices in the middle).

*Not her best. Maybe I've read too much Atwood and have thereby become jaded, but this was the usual: there's a woman, man and society and her own body have done her wrong, woman goes on futile attempt to recapture satisfaction, attempt slowly, too slowly, is not what she expects and thereby becomes transformative.
**Do all works of Japanese literature include at least one recurrent object or event? Sometimes these tropes have clear symbolic significance, and sometimes they seem to be significant only in that they recur.