A Critic of "Stir-fried Rice Vermicelli" on Weekday Afternoons

Until a few years ago, I had never eaten stir-fried rice vermicelli. I was vaguely aware of its existence, but since I don't eat instant noodles, I almost never stopped by the dried noodle section (?) at the supermarket, and I had never even seen it on the shelves.

Once, at a potluck party with friends, my best friend F brought some stir-fried rice vermicelli.
Oh! So this is that stir-fried rice vermicelli! When I tried it for the first time in my life, it was actually quite delicious.

"Stir-fried rice vermicelli is delicious. It's my first time eating it."
When I told her that, F was surprised and said, "What! It was always on our dinner table when I was growing up. Maybe even more often than yakisoba," which in turn surprised me.
When she asked, "Isn't it good?" I honestly replied, "Yeah, it's delicious. I'll try making it at home sometime."

That was my encounter with stir-fried rice vermicelli.

However, since I didn't have the habit of buying stir-fried rice vermicelli, I would forget about it even when I went to the supermarket.
Once, I suddenly remembered, but I couldn't find where it was sold, so I gave up.
Well, I figured I'd come across it eventually, and with that mindset, two or three years passed without me ever buying it.

Then, recently, I finally found it in the featured items section of a supermarket I stopped by on my way home from acupuncture. Among the various items piled high, there were also large stacks of "stir-fried rice vermicelli" in value packs.
Thinking, "It's been three years since we met (?)", I put one pack into my shopping basket.
It was a bargain pack that included three soy sauce-flavored stir-fried rice vermicelli and one salt-flavored one.

When I got home and reported to my husband, "I bought stir-fried rice vermicelli!" he said, "Huh, that's rare. I don't think I've eaten it much either."
Since my husband has basically been working from home since the pandemic, we were struggling with what to have for lunch every day, so it was perfect to have more variety.
We had been repeating udon, soba, pasta, curry, yakisoba, and fried rice, so adding even one new menu item was very welcome.

However, at that time, I had just started treatment, my body wasn't used to the medication yet, and I was almost bedridden. My husband had been cooking lunch more often.
A few days later, my husband asked, "Shall I make the stir-fried rice vermicelli?"
I hadn't made it before either, so I wanted to try it myself at first, but I didn't have the energy, so I left it to him, saying, "Sure, please do."

"It's ready!"
I crawled out of my futon at my husband's voice and sat at the table.
It looked incredibly delicious.
We both said "Itadakimasu" and started eating.

It's delicious.
What is this? It's insanely good.
Even for me, with not much of an appetite, it goes down smoothly. It's easy to eat.
While thinking about it deeply, I say it out loud.
"It's delicious, isn't it?"
My husband also says deeply,
"Yeah, it's super good."

While we silently shoveled it into our mouths for a while, I asked,
"Was it hard to make?"
"No, it's super easy. Just add water, cover, and wait three minutes."
"Oh, what about the seasoning?"
"You just add the packet that comes with it."
"That's super easy."
"Yeah, it's easy."

We ate silently for a while again.
"It's great that you can eat lots of vegetables too."
"Yeah, I tried putting in all sorts of things."
"It's healthy, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it's healthy."
"And the noodles, they aren't wheat flour, right?"
"Yeah, these noodles are also great."

We shoveled it into our mouths silently again.
"It's delicious."
"Yeah, it's delicious, it's easy, it's the best."
"It's great that we can get our vegetables in."
"It doesn't even stick to the frying pan."
"Wow! That's great."

We couldn't stop eating.
"The noodles are also great, aren't they?"
"Yeah, they're light and easy to eat."
"And besides..."

That was about as far as we could go.
We both burst into loud laughter.
Ever since we started eating, we had been endlessly repeating how good and wonderful "stir-fried rice vermicelli" is.
And doing so with such deep feeling.

We had never talked about a single food item for so long.
It was as if we had eaten a once-in-a-lifetime gourmet meal; we found it hilarious that we were taking turns talking about the charms of bargain-bin stir-fried rice vermicelli, and we rolled around laughing.

The exquisite "timing" that only a married couple understands was also funny.

I think that such trivial things are what happiness is, as I ponder over stir-fried rice vermicelli.
I'm glad I'm an ordinary person.
It's so easy to become happy.
Thank you, stir-fried rice vermicelli.
And to my best friend F who told me about it. I finally ate it after three years.

And,
what are you talking about

This is a phrase I've wanted to use once.
It was created by Konishi Kinoko-san, grew quietly in the back alleys of the note town, and is now a trending hashtag that everyone wants to use at least once.

I hesitated to write this because it's hard to find the right place for an article of this type, and I'm not even sure if this is the right way to use it, but here goes anyway.

I have been following Konishi Kinoko-san back and forth since shortly after I started on note, but I had no idea she was running "What are you talking about?" with such a grand mission, so I was moved by that as well.

In any case, stir-fried rice vermicelli is delicious. It's the best.
I regret having lived 50 years without knowing about it.