When change goes bad / Tokyo 2007 : Sunday in the Park II
When you’re rushing around, working in a kitchen surrounded by a constant assault of smells – from bubbling stocks, sizzling onions and 100 panfried steaks, to buttery pastries fluttering from the oven and 10 litres of freshly made chocolate sauce – you don’t often feel all that hungry, believe it or not. It’s usually not til I’ve left work that I realise I’m ravenously hungry. Today was no different, and I thought I would treat myself to a pretzel from my favourite one-stop-pretzel-shop, Luneburger.
If not for having to make the trek up pedestrian-unfriendly George Street to the QVB, I would probably eat Luneburger pretzels every day. When I got to the shop, my legs were wobbling from hunger, but I realised I had no money, and couldn’t find an ATM nearby. So I ducked into the nearby Woolworths and tried to find something to buy in order to get some money out from the cash register. Inconceivably, there was nothing I wanted to get, and indecision was eating away at my stomach lining. Finally I settled on a chocolate bar, got the money out, and rushed back to Luneburger. There was a generous number of glistening pretzels on display. However, they looked a bit smaller, lacked their signature sprinkling of rock salt, and were shrunken and wrinkly, rather than full and puffed, like the arms of Mr. America. Chief Baker’s day off? I wondered. Nevermind, one pretzel please! The girl behind the counter held up a pretzel and said, “These are different today. They don’t have salt on them, and there’s butter inside instead”. Stomach growling, I stared at her blankly. There’s what inside? “Butter. There’s butter inside.” She pointed patiently at the pretzel. There’s butter inside? I repeated stupidly, not quite computing that there would be no glorious, much longed for pretzel, to be had today. “Yes, butter”. Still unable to process the information, I declined to buy the sinister alien butter filled pretzel and walked away, all the while my mind was screaming, why why why with the butter?
On the train home, I unwrapped the damn chocolate bar and ate that instead.
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More pictures, as promised, from Yoyogi Park and surrounds. One of the bands playing that day had an amusing name. Unfortunately I can’t recall what it is exactly, only that it involved the word Hedgehog, which is in itself, an amusing word.
Tags: Tokyo 2007
Duncan | Syrup&Tang said,
December 9, 2007 @ 10:36 am
Delicious pretzels in central Sydney? I never knew! And what did they mean about butter? Had they cut them open and buttered them, or was there butter in the dough? (which there should be, but not with the result that they come out deformed!)
Y said,
December 9, 2007 @ 10:48 am
Duncan, Luneburger is a phenomenon. They’re always busy when I walk past, and they’ve since opened several other outlets. Their pretzels are absolutely fantastic, but they also do sourdough loaves, little rolls (I like the pumpkin seed one), sandwiches and all kinds of pastries (large rustic looking affairs with loads of chocolate, butter, .. or both!). The whole “butter pretzel” thing was a bit confusing to me too. I imagined biting into one and seeing a huge log of butter wrapped around pretzel dough. Maybe I should’ve bought one anyway, for the sake of research, but you know when you really really want something and nothing else will do?
Duncan | Syrup&Tang said,
December 9, 2007 @ 10:37 pm
Oh I definitely know that letdown of discovering the belusted item ain’t right… Hmm. I need to pop up to Sydney!
B said,
December 11, 2007 @ 8:47 pm
The Dilemma Of Hedgehog was the band. Turns out though, it isn’t actually as silly as it sounds:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehog's_dilemma
Watch them here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ-lQ1EEhSU