Me and Ethan
God says to Danny: Eat anything stupid lately?
Danny says to God: You know it.
Despite the despicable dinner options sometimes used as spicy and savory sustenance by the man who’s blog you now read, he would invite you to also believe that he does not always eat the chopped up intestinal tracks of Babe and really has only done so twice. But PETA be damned, he has had his share of crazy animal meats, sometimes whole, sometimes still alive.
Silk Worm
At least here in Korea I often know what is going into my body. From what I can tell there are a lot less processed foods here, at least in the way of Korean food. When I eat a live octopus for example, I can tell you what is in that dish. Can you tell me what was in your salad dressing? Even with more complicated dishes you can plainly see what goes into them and how they are made, often since they are prepared by you or right in front of you.
"Penis Fish"
Off the top of my head since coming to Korea I have consumed sashimi prepared moments after the fish’s demise, live octopus legs, cooked silk worms, pork intestines, pork liver, chicken liver, sea snails, giant clams, more squid than he can imagine, raw squid, raw sea squirts, raw “penis fish,” coagulated blood soup, spicy chicken feet, small whole octopus, sweet potato derived grain alcohol, rice wine, heaps of fermented vegetables, more garlic that is necessary to kill off the entire cast of those stupid vampire movies set in Forks, Washington and probably more crazy stuff that he’ll think of later and add to this delicious list of edibles.
Silk Worms
Apart from the things I choose to point my chopsticks at, I should say that I had a chance to hang out with a friend from Bellingham and trivia night rival, Carla Galland. Carla’s mother is Korean and initially was my biggest source of information about the peninsula other than David’s cryptic messages on Facebook or my amateurish researching on Wikipedia. Anyway, she came with her mom and dad for about 3 weeks and I was able to show her several of my favorite spots in town AKA the touristy and 20 somethings stuff that she doesn’t get to do with her family present. Basically I took her out to a lot of places that I like to eat. Haha!
Carla's Cousin's Apartment
Her family was kind enough to invite me over to their house just outside of Seoul twice for dinner and David was able to come the first night before his eastward trek towards the Dark Continent. We had a feast fit for a king—a Korean king. Too much kimchi for King Arthur, I’m sure. It was my first time getting to go to a Korean household for dinner and it was a lot of fun. Always bring a gift! The second time I ended up using a lot of my Korean skills and loving it. It’s great when I get to speak in Korean to someone I don’t know and am not trying to buy/get anything from.
Especially big thank you to Carla for getting on the military base in Seoul and getting me American style bacon and several cans of refried beans! THANK YOU! I love and miss beans as much as some of you might imagine.
Okay, so that was about a page. I think I’m done. I’ll be sure to get crackin on the next one soon. I hope everybody had a good Cinco de Mayo, we had Children’s Day instead—we didn’t have to work!
Cherry Blossoms
Over and out. 안녕히가세요!
