What do you think of when you hear the words rice, milk and strawberry jam? If you are English, you probably think of rice pudding. If you are Japanese, you probably think 'Ugh! Unbelievable!'
Rice pudding is a traditional English dessert that is very easy to make. All you have to do is open the can, pour the contents into a saucepan and heat. I am quite an expert at rice pudding because I used to eat it at least once a week when I was at school.
Every Wednesday afternoon we had to play sport. I would rush home in the lunch break, 'cook' rice pudding as I changed into my rugby uniform, and eat it as slowly as I could before hurrying back to school. Strangely enough, I was always late for rugby.
You are perhaps wondering about the strawberry jam I mentioned earlier. Well, it's simple. Although rice pudding tastes great without jam, it tastes even better with it. There are two ways to eat rice pudding with strawberry jam.
(1) You put a spoonful of red jam into the centre of your white rice pudding. You watch the jam slowly sink into the creamy whiteness of the pudding. You think of the transience of life. You eat the rice pudding leaving the jam till last. You eat the jam in one go. Lovely.
(2) You put a spoonful of red jam into the white rice pudding. It disappears to the bottom of your bowl. It reminds you of a haiku you once read somewhere.
Generally speaking boys prefer method (1), girls method (2).