apples

Apples. I do not eat apples. I am allergic to apples. I like apples but I cannot eat them. They mess with my stomach. Last time I ate apples was in Sweden, I was invited to potato salad. And when I tasted apple in it, I was too coward to leave the potato salad on the plate, I thought it would be to rude, I thought I would be ok, I thought my stomach wouldn’t mind, I thought I might as well try, maybe I can eat apples now, it has been a few years so maybe my stomach is ok with apples now. But it was not. So I try to avoid apples. My wife likes apples. So I prepare apples for her bento. 

No, she does not ask for apples, it is more my image that having an apple is good for her and the baby. And since it seems to be season for apples now, and since she likes apples, I buy big bags of apples and my wife is happy to bring an apple the office and have an apple snack in the afternoon. 

Until recently, I used to peel an apple in the morning, cut it in pieces and put them in a container. But apparently that is not a good way of doing this (I would not know since I do not eat apples, because I am allergic (I just wanted to repeat myself)) – apparently the apple pieces do not keep very well, they get yellow and old. So my wife told me how to do instead, and this became my take on it:

Before breakfast, I prepare a bowl with water. I add salt to the water, not too much, not too little, just lagom as we would say in Sweden. Then I peel an apple (I love the sound of the potato peeler cutting through the crystal-like meat of the apple), I cut it in pieces and put them in the bowl. After breakfast, I take the pieces out, rinse them in water and put them in the container. Like this, they are fresh and oishii when my wife wants to eat them in the afternoon (I would not know since I do not eat apples (since I am allergic (its about my stomach (I just wanted to repeat myself one more time)))). 

Maybe I will try a bite at some point, just to see. Maybe my stomach will not mind Japanese apples. Maybe a salt water bath neutralizes all the allergy causing components of the apple. Maybe. Or maybe I will just keep the image of possibility and leave the eating to my family.