今日は昨日と違ってとっても良いお天気です。こんな日にお散歩すると楽しかったのですけど、夫の希望で今日はお家デーです。夫の風邪は酷くはないものの、ずるずる長引いています。いつも１、２日ですっかり良くなるのですごいなと思っていましたが、やはり風邪の種類なのでしょう。今回はしつこい風邪みたい。でも、普通に行動していますし、食欲もあります。

It’s a beautiful day today after the miserable weather yesterday.  It would have been lovely to have a long walk in such weather but my husband wanted to have a stay home day today.  His cold isn’t heavy but it’s still hanging around.  Usually he is fine in one or two days but not this time, I used to think it was because he was very fit but I guess it’s to do with the kind of cold as well, this time it seems a little heavier than usual.  He is still OK to do whatever he wants to do and has a good appetite.

今日のランチは、スパゲティー・ナポリタンでした。夫は初挑戦。

Today’s lunch was an old Japanese style Spaghetti Napolitana.  It’s something my generation grew up with, something you would have in a coffee shop or a casual restaurant where you can go with your children.  All you do is to stir-fry onion, green pepper (small Japanese one) and often sliced Japanese sausage, chuck in the cooked spaghetti, squeeze in some ketchup, and salt & pepper if necessary – I like to add tabasco as well.

パスタの茹で方やソースとパスタの種類の組み合わせなど結構こだわっている割に、このジャンクなナポリタンは好きなのです（笑）。イタリア人のお友達には叱られそうと思いながら、たまに食べたくなり、香港やシンガポールではごくたまに夫がいない夜作っていました。なので、夫はまだ食べたことがなかったのです。

I’m quite fussy about ‘doneness’ of pasta, and the combination of pasta and sauce etc, but I like this junk food!  It’s because I grew up with it, I’m sure.  My Italian friend, I’m afraid, would not approve I know, but we all have something that we like when other nationality people find disgusting (like English fake custard for me!).  I used to cook this occasionally in Hong Kong and Singapore my husband was away and I was on my own, so he’d never had it before.  I don’t consider this to be proper cooking (quite rightly) so I didn’t even think about cooking it for dinner for my husband.

ただ、香港でもシンガポールでも日本のソーセージが手に入らないのが残念でした。こちらでも探して見ましたがやはりなく、似たようなものも見つからず、ほぼ諦めていたのですが、ジャパンセンターで冷凍物を見つけました。日本から輸入したものではなくドイツ製とありますが、「日本ハムのレシピで作った」と書かれています。冷凍物として別にデリバリーしていただかないと到着するまでに解凍されてその日に食べなくてはいけないので、送料が高くつきますが別にデリバリーを手配して購入してみました。とても高価なソーセージ（笑）。もう少し太い方がジューシーで美味しいのにと思いますが、皮はパリッとしていますし、日本のソーセージらしい味と食感で美味しかったです。ピーマンはないので、ソーセージの他には赤パプリカと玉ねぎ。ケチャップが慣れた味より甘い気がしましたが、美味しくいただきました。夫も美味しいと食べていました。

However, in Hong Kong and Singapore Japanese style sausages weren’t available.  I tried to find them here, too, but hadn’t found any until I checked on Japan Centre website.  They have frozen ones.  Not from Japan but from Germany, but it says it’s made according to ‘Nippon Ham recipe’ (Nippon Ham is a well know Japanese maker of meat products), so we thought we’ll give it a try.  It cost a lot to have them delivered because I had to have them packed specially and delivered separately from non-frozen food, because if I didn’t do that they would be defrosted by the time they arrive and we would have to eat them on that day.  I think they would be nicer if they were fatter, but they were very much like Japanese sausages.  They are nice and firm and has very crispy skin.  I love English sausages (‘bangers’) when they are good quality, but I also love these ones and for stir-fry they work very well.  No Japanese style green pepper available today so we used normal red pepper.  The ketchup seem to taste a little sweeter here – I don’t know if I’m imagining this because it is the same maker – but it was good enough.  My husband said he also liked it.