夜色ブログ

. . . and am feeling particularly retarded.

It's taken me three months to realise I have an oven in my apartment, all the while mourning the loss of all the baked goods I enjoy eating. Apparently, my microwave oven also doubles as an oven proper — well, almost.

Upon arriving three months ago, I soon realized that the microwave oven had a function where you could set the temperature, but I assumed that it was tied into the microwave part of the oven, and it only went up to 200° anyway. Of course, in Canada all my recipes have directions with the oven temperature given in Fahrenheit which didn't help since the number 200° and word oven bring to mind phrases like "keep warm".

When a package containing popperdums (Indian food item) arrived from my dad early this month, I decided to microwave some of them (yes, I'm hypocritical). However, the convergence of the microwaves in the oven is much different than what I'm used to, so parts of the popperdums were being cooked and other weren't. For the first time I decided to look at the interior of the microwave oven and discovered a heating element recessed in the top of it. "Ah! So it is a real oven" briefly crossed my mind, but was quickly brushed aside since I still figured an oven that just keeps food warm is somewhat useless.

Last night, as I was half-heartedly trying to fall asleep, I started wondering if the common Japanese person simply doesn't eat baked food as a rule. I had no doubt that they eat much less than your typical North American. But even in the Japanese cooking class I went to in October, we used an oven. Then it struck me! What's 200°C in Fahrenheit!? 200°C ✕ 9°F ∕ 5°C + 32°F ・・・ 392°F!

If I'm awake tonight, guess what I'll be making for dinner. Who knows, maybe I'll even bake some cookies over the holidays.