Things currently on my mind, and don’t ask why:

I love the smell of scalded milk. An obvious remark given the entire layout and title of this blog, but to be honest I’d never had any overwhelming love of milky/creamy things until the last few years (though it’s still not the reason for this blog’s name). Either way, I might feel obligated to amend the subtitle above as my gaseous-response-to-lactose has altogether disappeared now that I drink milk with school lunch all the time. It’s like finally getting a superpower back. Haha! There’s no stopping this Asian now! If only alcohol were as easy… I’ve also been nursing a bit of a cold during these past busy weeks, so one of the comfort beverages I’ve turned to is good ol’ hot milk & honey. Mmm. I heat up the milk in a saucepan then pour it into my mug, and the transfer creates a delightful sizzle in the pan and a warm release of aroma. It almost replaces whiffs of brewing coffee as a top favorite.

I also love the taste of pumpkin soup. An obvious choice given the time of year when pumpkin is pretty much the flavor in everything. More correctly, pumpkin spice ends up in every consumable product imaginable. Last year it was pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin spice beer, pumpkin spice in pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin spice muffin (when it wasn’t banana), pumpkin spice in pumpkin pie… mmmmm, pie… I probably ate a couple shakers’ worth now that I think about it, just because I couldn’t resist sprinkling a good amount in my morning brew at the coffee additive counter anytime I found the stuff left out. Somewhere around December I finally became pumpkin-spiced out. This year has been a lot of drawing and talking about pumpkins (or at least the Japanese variety, kobacha),

[linked from this website]

though no eating. こ ばちゃのスパイス … chop, chop, chop goes the language butcher!… hasn’t been sprinkled or mentioned even once. However, I finally bought a jack o’ half at the grocery store and made a soup for additional autumnal comfort. Just your usual squash soup, but all the sentimental seasonal thoughts came rushing back in one steamy bowl. Ahh.

That was it. Back to class prep and Japanese homework.