08. 23. DINNER

해삼내장비빔밥: rice with sea cucumber innards

You know that song, I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight — sing it, but mean it, banish all sinking suspicion from your mind that the metaphor might be old hat or that the sentiment might be cheesy. You think I might be kidding but really I am not. I have been whining about this dish for longer than I can remember. Definitely it was on my mind last summer vacation, when I was home for too short to even have pickled crab, let alone hunt down this. I’ve been talking about wanting it nonstop to family, to friends, professors, the whole shebang. I think I first saw it on TV a couple years back, and it was overshadowed by the second item in this blog entry, the pickled sea pineapple with rice. But there’s a reason that this costs two and a half times more than that, and that’s, um, because more sea cucumbers go into this than sea pineapples go into that — but that’s not my point, my point is that this is going to be one of those foods that I fantasize about aimlessly in my moments of dire pain. This is why we went down south, a part of why I came back home, why it is acceptable for me to complain so much in the previous post — because this is seriously insane. It’s crazy. It’s absolutely unbelievable. We found the restaurant driving down a city street and decided that it was trustworthy because it had been on TV thirty-two times. Turns out that it’s the restaurant the camera crews turn to when they need to do a summer special on summer foods you can only find in certain regions. They usually are more interested in the sea pineapples, but they are wrong. I really want to rave about the taste, but it’s just — it’s so subtle that I can’t, it doesn’t even taste like sea cucumbers, or salty or briny or fishy or anything at all, it’s just… a barely-there hint of something incredible, and you’re through the entire huge freaking bowl before you can pin it down. Oh my god. I’ve only had it once so I am rather afraid to place it on the same pedestal as pickled crab, but if that was the known reason behind this blog and these summer months, this represents everything unknown. This is everything good about trying new foods. Forget traveling to exotic locations, or taking wild risks, bungee jumping, parachutes, whatever. Food is where it’s at. The amount of danger involved in the adventure has nothing to do with what you’re left with later — it’s not about the adrenaline, it’s about a sensation closer to your skin. Does this make any sense at all? Taste is intimate, and there’s good cause for that. Honestly, it’s been two days since this meal and three hours since I’ve started working on these backlogged posts, but all I can do is hope that May 2009 comes as soon as it possibly can. Or I’m going to find a restaurant in my neighborhood that serves this, by this point I’d be happy to spend all my tutoring income on food and nothing else.

멍게젓비빔밥: pickled sea pineapples with rice

And here is the runner-up, photo courtesy of my brother. So this was good too, but really I have no idea why anyone would be talking about this when they can have the sea cucumber innards. I appreciate sea pineapples, and I’d say that I like them, if I were asked, but they quickly grow to be a little too much. Normally I am all for the unapologetic taste of the sea, and that’s what I do like about the sea pineapples, but it’s a very mood-specific food. Unless you’re in the right frame of heart and stomach to get through an entire bowl, I feel like this is going to be more of a chore than it should be. It was very good, and maybe to someone that likes sea pineapples more than I do, it is every bit as amazing as it has the potential to be. But I’m going to stick with the sea cucumbers. If I hadn’t felt so guilty I would have greatly enjoyed some slices of actual sea cucumber to go along with the meal, but yes, the guilt, and also I was too busy having my mind asploded by my new southern love, thank you. I’m acutely aware than the first picture isn’t all that great, actually it’s pretty bad even by my standards, but the camera was pretty much forgotten for the rest of the meal and I didn’t want to waste time redeeming myself. And then Korea ridiculously won the gold medal in freaking baseball, out of all things, so somehow it never rains, but it pours. Oh God take me back. (I think that will set the tone very nicely for the next nine months.)