08. 20. LUNCH

a Pizza Hut nonalcoholic sangria

These are actually pretty decent. The fruit slices are terribly sour (and I don’t mean to be dryly continental when I say that — they actually are terrible in how sour they are) and the liquid is a bit more layered than I’d like, but overall it’s nice and sweet and fruity. Besides you never end up finishing the drink so there is certainly enough of it to be worth the money. I was at the mall again with a friend, catching The Dark Knight for the second time. People saying “um so tdk is cool you guys but don’t take your girlfriend okay if you are on a date with her then go see wall-e instead” offends me. Wow, I just realized why I don’t have a boyfriend. It’s because I like all the wrong movies. Insight! Psh, as though it were that fixable a problem. Anyway, I did like Wall-E, but TDK is pretty damned amazing. But I’m going to be honest here and say that I nearly failed to make it through my second watching. It was just as good, and many, many things were clearer, but the entire thing is so enervating and from Dent and Dawes getting captured on, it’s just one long soul-sucking spiral of GLOOM. Which is the way it’s supposed to be, and it’s very effective in that you are completely exhausted by the end of it. Or at least I was. I feel kind of bad that I only got in three watching of Red Cliffs, though, if I got in two for TDK.

garlic gorgonzola pizza

The lemon honey dipping sauce that comes with this is terribly sweet. But overall I am liking this new “fresh gourmet” menu that they’ve got going on, the size could be a tad larger for it to be satisfying but it’s thin and it’s really good. Now all they need to do is unify the two different styles of ordering pizza, so that you can order whatever the hell you want on your pizza or ask for garlic and gorgonzola without sounding like a stupid twat. And you can do both, without having to change continents in between! Revolutionary! Seriously people, how difficult can it possibly be to offer both ways. In closing, I would like to state that I tagged this post also under “alcohol” because there isn’t a separate tag for drinks and really, that sangria should have had wine in it.

08. 13. DINNER

fruit soju, tofu and kimchi, spicy stir-fried chicken (깐풍기), a birthday cake

HOW IS IT THAT EVERY SINGLE TIME I DRINK WE END UP GOING THERE. IS THIS FATE. Though I don’t want to be fighting it, since the only alternatives I could suggest would be tiny dinky cocktail bars where we wouldn’t be able to afford much with the budget from the school, or, you know, beer. And you’re not really often fond of beer. Besides, fruit soju is awesome. So this was my birthday dinner, since I have the translation seminar on Wednesdays — we had the actual meal at Din Tai Fung, my previous visit to which is documented somewhere on this blog, and I would have taken ten gazillion pictures there because we had the deluxe course meal and it was SO. SO FREAKING GOOD. But wouldn’t you know it, I left my camera at home and no one else had one. Luckily someone who did have one joined us, but that was after Din Tai Fung and before the karaoke. Suffice it to say that it was incredible, and so was the karaoke party, and the fruit soju afterwards. I think we had strawberry and mango. Oh, there’s the professor. I am going to miss this class, this city, this land. (But your tendency to withhold movies from me, o Republic of Korea, is not appreciated.)

08. 08. DINNER

tofu and kimchi with fruit soju

Passetyme with gude companye. Olympics, what olympics? We were drinking by then. Actually I did catch the beginning of the opening ceremonies on the TV mounted up on the ceiling, but it wasn’t really a priority. It’s difficult to really enjoy drinking on a gustatory level once you’ve had fruit soju, I maintain. Unless you’re getting cocktails. Which… doesn’t really count, because the whole point is that fruit soju tastes less like alcohol and more like heaven, which is the same deal for cocktails so there’s no point in arguing between the two. Am I making any sense at all? I think it’s bedtime. Anyway, pictured above are the kiwi and mango flavors. As well as a plate of tofu and kimchi that we ripped through.

해물전: seafood pancake

And there is that word again, “pancake”. But by now I really couldn’t care less. There is such a drastic difference in the amount of time the alcohol takes to get to you, depending on whether you’re drinking on an empty stomach or not — I mean, sure there is a difference, that’s obvious, but I wouldn’t have thought there would be such a gap. This 해물전 was sorely lacking clams. It’s rainy-weather food. It’s past midnight and I’ve finished all the backdating, so I think I’m allowed to turn in now and get some sleep. I’ve been getting enough lately so all life is well. There is peace in the land.