08. 25. LUNCH

grilled pine mushrooms (송이버섯) and garlic

Awesome, pine mushrooms! I prefer button mushrooms because they require less work beforehand and because they’re more useful for the massive tiny chopping that I do when I do anything with them, which is incredibly rare seeing as how I’m getting lazier and lazier. But I think I’ve been telling myself that because pine mushrooms are simply more expensive. I’m getting mental images of that one chapter in Pyuu to Fuku Jaguar when they get matsutake sent from home and they have no idea what to do with it because it’s so precious and then they end up making this huge block of gum out of it. But this entry is quickly turning maniacal and so I must stop myself. Let’s talk about my brother’s unwillingness to grill things that really need to be grilled before they are ingested, like garlic and onions. He did it again, and again I couldn’t really say anything because, you know, he didn’t have to grill anything at all, and he went through the trouble, but augh the garlic was so raw and nigh inedible.

chicken and stir-fried anchovies (멸치볶음) with rice

All in all it was a bit of a humble meal. It’s a bit odd because what with the free time I have and the fact that I’ll be leaving soon, I should be feeling an overwhelming urge to cook things, but I’m not. At all. I think it’s because I’ve learned more happily than usual that anything I can manage to make, you can buy better. Wait, except for scrambled omelettes. I am still a beast at that.

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. 06. DINNER

찜닭: steamed chicken

Ughhhh I love seminar Wednesdays. Seriously there is more eating done in that class than translating overall and it is exactly the way things should be. I am ecstatic. I am in tatters. Anyway, this restaurant tickles my fancy because its name is “Fengchu Steamed Chicken”, and, you know, Fengchu, the Baby Phoenix, half of the crouching-dragon baby-phoenix power duo team, though he did get punched full of arrows at the tender age of 36 or something, and wasn’t really much of a looker, is still near and dear to my heart, unlike this rambling mess of a sentence. I refer to Pang Tong. What a cute name it sounds like, put this way. So evidently I am still not over my Three Kingdoms phase. This may prove to be a problem once the school year begins if it doesn’t die out before then, but as for now I have enough time to indulge myself. I know I’m playing into ridiculously manufactured fictional representations of history by being fond of Shu Han, but honestly, it’s not that I’m fond of Shu Han because of the Romance, it’s that I’m fond of the Romance because I’m fond of Shu Han. Is what I tell myself. That entire haphazard fiasco of a nation is so apocryphal and fleshed-out and larger than any possible semblance of life in the Romance that you can’t help but love them. All hesitation and idealism and — of course — their frigid benevolent machine of a tactician, the ghost in white taming generals like well-bred tigers. Jesus God even Zhao Yun’s name is so freaking hot. Wait, but this has nothing to do with food, but but then again since when has this blog been about fidelity? It’s about MEN. HOT MEN. TOTALLY RIPPED MEN DRENCHED FROM HEAD TO TOE IN BLOOD. I just realized that I basically didn’t say anything about the chicken itself. Uh — it was good. Really.

08. 04. DINNER

fried chicken and rice

We were watching Galaxy Express 999 on TV as we were eating. I desperately wanted to change the channel because I can’t go without my hobby of watching better things being eaten on TV as I actually rather enjoy my own meal, but my brother insisted on finishing 999. Honestly, though, how many people actually know how 999 ends, or what the plot is? All that’s necessary is how the three main characters look, the fact that there’s a slight infusion of an Oedipus Complex thrown in, that they’re in outer space — and something new that I learned today, which is that Maetel sleeps naked. Haha. No, I never knew that, though now I can bring it up at will and have people make disgusted faces at me because Maetel is this amorphous beautiful fantastic sparkly woman in furry Russian clothing who should not sleep in anything but furry Russian clothing and lots of plush blankets. I also don’t know how the original storyline for Trigun ends, or for Inuyasha (though that is a piece of crap and everyone probably pairs off neatly in loving heterosexual union), or for Evangelion, or actually a ton of other things which is slightly shameful considering only how much time I spent downloading and watching all that ridiculous nonsense. I should have just read it through instead. Though! I’m not ashamed of having watched FLCL! No actually just a little. But that’s because I was so late in getting there! Honest! Liking FLCL is totally the hip thing to do. It’s like, the one statement that can save you from the cesspool that you are in danger of falling into by announcing that you “watch anime”. As soon as you mention FLCL, and to a lesser extent Bebop (because everybody and their mother has watched Bebop, also it’s slower and longer) and to an even lesser extent Champloo (because it’s way too recent to be properly hip) you are suddenly cool again! Magic!! Also stuff like Ghost in the Shell doesn’t count because that’s not even really anime, that’s just… a really terrible migraine.

07. 25. DINNER

fried chicken and rice

I-I feel lost. I just made a decent-sized post about this meal (or about something else altogether, but it was a post at least) and it just disappeared into the Internet. I have lost all will to fight. I am going to publish this now, because I haven’t recovered yet from the shock and I’m going to need some time to myself so that I can cope. What is wrong with the world? she asked, melodramatically.

07. 09. DINNER

tandoori chicken with curry over eggs over rice

Look at the color on that tandoori chicken, gosh. I love it. My brother and I ate out at the fancy-schmancy Indian restaurant (actually they mostly just serve variants of curry) across the street. The chicken was incredible, but the rice really could have done without whatever it was that they did to it. Truthfully, I guess I just wanted tandoori chicken and rice, though I didn’t realize it at the time. With my keen powers of observation, it has taken me approximately a month to come to the conclusion that this summer’s silhouette has my blessings. It seems to be a loose, gauzy, flouncy top over a very short and often layered skirt. This is rather kind to the waistline and flattering to the legs, and is also remarkably practical in the heat. As shamefully fond of boho chic as I am, the long skirts of past summers were sweaty just to look at. Unfortunately I am not following this trend because I look like a freaking clown in anything flouncy, let alone gauzy, but on the whole, I approve. That didn’t really have anything to do with tandoori chicken, but bear with me here, I walked forty minutes in the hundred-degree heat while listening to Rodrigo y Gabriela (truth).

07. 03. DINNER

rice with chicken in soy sauce

After lunch at half past two and a bowl of watermelon bits while I was tutoring, it’s hard to be hungry in time for dinner. Actually dinner today was had at a quarter to midnight. Which just means that I’m going to have to stay up for an hour or two since I don’t want to sleep directly after eating. But anyway, apparently my brother made chicken for dinner while I wasn’t home, the way Kyochon does it, which is — well, who knows how they do it, but their secret marinating technique involves soy sauce somehow. And this involves soy sauce somehow. It was pretty good actually, I’d have enjoyed it with more rice as a full meal. Speaking of Kyochon, though, Flushing must be visited someday in the near future. But that’s after school starts again and thinking about that is futile and also very depressing, so no more on that. At least I don’t have school at nine tomorrow, oh yay.

06. 12. DINNER

삼계탕: chicken stew

We had dinner out with my uncle, aunt and their grandchildren at a restaurant chain that serves chicken exclusively. Chicken stew is a summer food, a sort of herbal remedy for general heat-induced exhaustion. Chicken, rice, ginseng, date and chestnut apparently magically fortify you against the dismal summer months. Unfortunately, I usually end up not eating the last three ingredients, but I do dump in a handful of garlic slices so I’m good. Garlic needs to lose its bite before it becomes something you actually want to eat.

전기통닭구이: electric roast chicken

I also had a wing off this plate. Chicken skin is a guilty pleasure I have, but I realized that I should actually not be so ashamed of it, because I learned it by eating chicken like this and it’s perfectly all right to munch on skin if it’s so crisp and fat-free. However, I am ashamed of constantly settling for the soggy, fatty kind. That’s a little shameful. Afterwards we went to the hairdresser’s, one of the first things we do once we get home. It’s a ritual cleansing, to sit there in your chair and endure the hairdresser berate you for using terrible shampoo on a terrible haircut. But it’s the best I could get, I mumbled, and gave the same excuse for my pedicure.

07. 25. DINNER

fried chicken and rice

This is fried chicken and rice. It was pretty good fried chicken and pretty good rice, but as it stands this menu is boring as all get-out, so I’m going to talk about something else. So remember when I was ranting about John Woo dragging me down? In the meanwhile I have quietly succumbed because struggling only makes you drown faster, this is what the wise men say. Accordingly I bought that ten-volume set of books and I’m ripping through them with the sort of speed only love can muster. Slowly I’m remembering bits and pieces from the crappy version that I read I was little, though back then I wasn’t interested in much except for the bit where ZL fakes his… his aliveness. Because there was a huge picture and it was really brightly colored and young!me was like OOH SHINY. Well, current!me is also like OOH SHINY, but at a lot more things. Basically I find things generally a lot shinier now, that’s about it. This is a truer statement than I expected out of myself. I feel like I’ve turned into a magpie. Or a teenager. Now that I covet earrings and clothes in addition to pens and notebooks and business cards from restaurants, not much has changed except that I need a lot more money to spend. My transformation will probably be complete once I start being really interested in shoes. Actually I’m kind of feeling that happen bit by bit and it frightens me to no end so I’m trying to keep it at bay. Yes, they’re shiny, but I better just shut up and sit down and finish reading those books.