06. 30. DINNER

유황오리: sulfur smoked duck

Remember when I posted the same picture of the walnut and craisin bread in order to portray the monotony of my breakfasts? This is kind of like that, except it’s not as well thought-out. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I am at a great risk for forgetting to take pictures of dinner because I am so freaking hungry after standing an hour in public transportation, especially in a bus which is like a circus and a softcore porn movie at the same time. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I am liable to forget breakfast — because I might be up too late for it — or lunch, because I will be starving after four hours of class. Maybe next time I’ll try getting one of those amazing waffles they have during break. But this is not that time, and since it is true that I had some of the leftover duck for dinner, this will be all. Also, I am nearly done reading Pride and Prejudice, which is one of those achievements only great in perspective with how bad I am at doing that sort of thing most of the time. Like grilling salmon. Darcy is Darcy, of course, but I have a soft spot for profligates.

salad pattern #1832

Who was it that said that old vegetables don’t die, they just fade away? Well, here’s salad pattern #1832 made from vegetables I have been neglecting for something like a week. It’s definitely not as good as when things are fresh, and actually the mushrooms were kind of gross so I might be heading for salad pattern #1833 which will not include mushrooms. Or will include grilled mushrooms, perhaps, but when not fresh they are not to be ingested raw. Some would argue that under no circumstances are they to be ingested raw; but I am Asian and we make up a great majority of those poisoned by mushrooms worldwide. I must do my duty for Queen and country.

유황오리: sulfur smoked duck

We also bought a pre-packaged thing of duck when we were grocery shopping, because I am a huge fan of duck and I kept dropping hints that I wanted some. My brother likes it, I think, but I think I am the only one so in love with it. Duck is so incredibly greasy and dark and amazing, a different kind of dark from, say, ostrich, the taste of which I memorized carefully so that next time someone asks, I can actually tell them what it tastes like instead of being all “Um, well, you know, I did have it, but it was kind of marinated, maybe, I don’t remember, it was a really long time ago, and we fed the cat bits of omelette, and um, yeah.” Which is embarrassing. I don’t approve of the sesame seeds sprinkled on top, but I am of the opinion that sesame seeds hardly belong anywhere, and certainly not in 90 percent of the foods that they do end up on top of.

06. 30. BREAKFAST

green tea corn flakes and banana milk

The last day of June and here we are, finishing off the box of improbable cereal. Actually, we bought something Post with dried fruit when we went grocery shopping over the weekend, so I think we are safe so as long as we can get through these last few bowlfuls. It still tastes unremarkable, but is aesthetically oddly pleasing. Somewhat like 80s fashion — it shouldn’t be right, and really, it isn’t, but you accept it for what it is and you revel in it. Monday is here again.

06. 29. DINNER

족발: pig feet

Wow, things sound kind of really unappetizing when you put them that way. They were kind of actually unappetizing back in the days of foot and mouth, but now that that’s the least of our worries, we’re gravitating away from the beef. We picked up a pack of prepared pig feet so that we could have it for dinner (with rice, of course, and with kimchi, because it goes with pork like I went with your mom last night) instead of attempting to cook anything, because Mom was eating out again and we were in convulsive tears over the fact. Why can’t we party hard once in a while? Oh, wait, we’ve pretty much been doing nothing but that starting on Friday night. But now it is Sunday and the week draws upon us once more. Sometimes I love being at the gym because it allows me to forget my pain. The woe, oh the humanity. I believe I can see the future, et cetera, et cetera, every day is exactly the same.

06. 29. LUNCH

알밥: rice with tobiko

So before we leave to visit the duty-free shops, I ask my mother, Are we going to come back to the house before lunch? She says yes, I ask her again just to be sure, she says yes, and that’s why I don’t take my camera. Of course, we end up going straight to lunch. But it’s at the food court across the street, so when my mother calls my brother to make him join us for food, I tell him to bring my camera. He says he will. Ten seconds later, he shows up, and of course he doesn’t have my camera. Apparently he forgot. Despite my utter incomprehension as to the logistics of this event, I am relegated to sucking it up. And so I do. Today’s picture is stolen from mj2mz.egloos.com and it is proof that the universe is conspiring against my keeping a diligent entry system. Well, anyway, I shouldn’t still be bitter about it. You are not your food blog. (You are also not your Fight Club references.) As it figures, the 알밥 was tragically good. I might consider having it again, which would be convenient because I’m always at a loss as to what I should order when we’re at the food court. And then we went to the Starbucks attached to that underground grocery store thing and I had a green tea latte, half of which I proceeded to drop on the ground on the way home. I wept inside and I weep now.

06. 29. BREAKFAST

green tea corn flakes

I wasn’t hungry enough to make myself anything for breakfast. So what else is new. Apparently, this box of cereal that everybody knew about before me, since half of it is gone already. They are ridiculous. They are dark green corn flakes and their taste has nothing to do with green tea whatsoever. Yes, I laughed. Yes, I might be having it again, if only because it looks so amazingly pristine and subtly elegant floating in a bowl of reduced-fat milk. The picture doesn’t do its greenness much justice, but trust me, I was blown away.

06. 28. EVENING SNACK

Takeshi Kaneshiro as Zhuge Liang

Because man cannot live on bread alone, and a girl has needs, I overcame my post-dinner hunger by feasting on movie pamphlets. And oh gosh look. This is from the Red Cliffs movie opening in July, about a week before The Dark Knight. So Takeshi Kaneshiro, whom I don’t really know but apparently have seen in Perhaps Love which nobody else watched except for the three people in the 200-person theater with me at the time which was half past eight in the morning, is going to play Zhuge Liang. And Zhuge Liang is kind of a big deal. I’m certainly not versed well enough in the Three Kingdoms lore to go into any specifics, but he is the original smartass bastard. He has a feathered fan for the express purpose of annoying the hell out of everybody else. He should be smarmy, composed, infuriatingly knowing and yet somehow incredibly fly. I think that has been accomplished and I am tickled to no end.

DUELING TRADITIONAL INSTRUMENTS

No kidding there is going to be a traditional instrument dueling scene in the movie. I can’t breathe, that is so amazing. It’ll be just like dueling banjos except without the mental disability and the hours of wide-eyed panic that follow. Also, TRADITIONAL INSTRUMENTS. I’m not sure what they’re called because I don’t know the first thing about China, but I’m already jumping up and down in my seat. Sorry the picture is so terrible, but these are tiny on the pamphlets and it’s super glossy. Zhuge Liang is twenty-seven at the time of the battle for heaven’s sakes how supernaturally hot is that? Also Zhou Yu is thirty-three and played by Tony Leung so okay both the actors are slightly older than their parts but by this point I don’t care, I don’t even care whether it’ll be a good movie or not and I certainly don’t care much about the battle scenes. I just need to see Takeshi Kaneshiro as Zhuge Liang sitting on a high chair with his white robes smiling that little maddening genius-tactician smile and maybe calling on some good old-fashioned magic. Though actually the last bit probably shouldn’t happen.

Charlie Bartlett

This movie is old hat but I saw the pamphlet standing there and I squealed. How is that man so fine? I always believed in you, Robert Downey Jr. Believe you me. Well okay let’s be honest I only heard of him after he got things under control, but hey at least I knew him a handful of movies before Iron Man. I think that’s enough to go with these days. Just like you get a smidgen of cred for having known Johnny Depp before PotC. Why do I incorrectly remember Secret Window to be further back than Caribbean? Probably because I felt like the movie went on forever, since, you know, it wasn’t a good movie really. It’s surprising: I just counted, and I still haven’t seen twenty Depp films. Maybe if I do Platoon and Donnie Brasco sometime.

06. 28. DINNER

手巻き: temaki

Our parents were still out partying it up, so in wild resentment we went to the movies. But then we felt kind of guilty so we went cheap for dinner, to the same place that I had buckwheat noodles last time. Or soba noodles. I think they’re the same thing. Anyway, thanks be to the Lord for he has shown me the truth: somehow I accidentally stumbled on the Wiki article for castella, which is what the sponge cake is actually called. Not much to do with custard, but it’s a Portuguese influence on the Japanese. Now I know whom to hate. I mean. Also I hate the makers of this temaki because it was seriously pretty bad. All chewy and soggy and tasteless and generally I decided that you should never enter this restaurant and hope for sushi of any kind.

냉모밀: cold buckwheat noodles

These were fine, though. As usual. Though they’re so watery and also they’re noodles to begin with, so they go down extremely fast and you’re hungry again within the hour. But maybe that’s a good thing for keeping in shape so as long as you don’t eat anything else after the hunger strikes. I tried not to. Except for dessert, because that’s okay, some dessert is fine, I’m telling you.

팥빙수: shaved ice with red beans

It wasn’t even great anyway. Actually it wasn’t even good. We were scrimping but we wanted 팥빙수, so we decided to get it at Burger King instead of at this little restaurant that I used to love to go to but now has turned into some foul bourgeoisie establishment where every meal is an occasion and everything is upwards of fifteen dollars (which is greatly expensive for their portions and their target audience, let me assure you) and to top it all off, they don’t even have what I used to love on the menu anymore, which was this fantastic salad in a long ceramic bowl tossed with thinly sliced brisket and what have you guys done with your restaurant it’s ridiculous screw you guys man. You don’t know what you’re doing. I’m never going there again until I get a ridiculously rich boyfriend who doesn’t know how to say no. In addition, Wanted was ridiculous as well. Remember, kids, you’re nobody until you put meaning back into your lives by becoming an assassin. But it reminded me of Max Payne multiple times for multiple reasons so all was well with the world.

06. 28. LUNCH

새우볶음밥: shrimp fried rice

My brother and I were resenting the fact that our parents were going to a Japanese restaurant after golf, so we decided to eat out. But we weren’t angry enough or courageous enough to go to the conveyor belt sushi place, so we — no, no, wait, that wasn’t the reason, we didn’t go because it started raining. Yes. Kind of. Well, it was wet. Rain is wet. Anyway, we went to the tofu place which is literally ten seconds away from the entrance to our apartment complex. It opened up relatively recently, while I was in college, and it has the heartfelt recommendation of my father. I trust that because he is a picky eater. So we went and we got food.

순두부찌개: spicy soft tofu soup

This is the main event, but as I am not too good with hot things or spicy things, I decided to get a small-sized version, with the shrimp fried rice as mentioned above. My verdict is that whenever anybody ever wants to meet me in this neighborhood, I am taking them here. It’s tofu, so it’s very reasonably priced, the service is super fast, there is an entire drawer of cutlery built into the tables, and the food is amazing. The problem is, though, that there might not be room. We had a ten-minute wait, but luckily we were only two so we got seated first. It is my goal to try many, many, many other things on their menu.

06. 28. BREAKFAST

카스테라: IS IT CUSTARD OR SPONGE CAKE

Heavenly Father help me in my hour of need. I am confused, I am in so much turmoil; if this food has no relevance to custard whatsoever, and is, in fact, sponge cake, then why is its name half a syllable away from being “custard”? Is it the doing of the Japanese? Must we blame this on them like we blamed “arbeit” and “neurose” on the Germans? Please give me the grace of spirit to forgive them, Lord, for they do not know what they have done. And we are sinners equal in the eyes of the Father, when they also use this word without realizing that what they are ingesting is, in fact, sponge cake. Hear my prayer, Lord, and deliver us from this tragedy of nomenclature. Also it would be nice if I could get up early enough not to have to eat cake for breakfast because it really feels unhealthy thank you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.