Jesus, That's a Spicy Marinade

Tonight is game six between the Samsung Lions and the Doosan Bears. The Lions play baseball here in Daegu, I caught a game back in the regular season and it was great. The most expensive tickets listed on the board were 6000 won, or about $4.50 at the current exchange rate. Plus you can bring in your own beer and food. The Lions are the series underdogs and are fighting to stay alive in the league semifinals, and, hold on a second, I want to go buy some ice cream.

Ok, got it.nThe guy at the Power Mart is the nicest guy ever. He always gives me some sort of discount, and is always smiling and says "have a good night" in English. I think that the Lions won the championship last year, but this year they are two runs down with three innings to go in their season, potentially. There weren't too many people at the game I went to, over a month ago when they were battling for the pennant, but understandably the games have been sold out recently, from what I've heard.

That ice cream was great. My mouth feels nice and cool now. I was dying earlier when I was eating dinner. I bought some dweji gogi, or thinly-sliced pork, and pan-fried it with a spicy marinade I bought and some garlic and onions and peppers. When I was at E-Mart earlier this evening, I was contemplating my Korean marinade choices since I couldn't find any Western-style barbeque sauce. By contemplating, I mean comparing the one line of English on each of the bottles. I decided to go with the Smart Choice High Fiber Hot Spicy Pork Bulgogi Marinade because if the Smart Choice brand name doesn't doesn't lend itself to an obvious choice, the rest should.

I guess I forgot that time when I was in Thailand, where all the food is spicy by default, sort of like Korea, and I saw a dish explicitly listed on the menu as spicy, and I thought "Wow, something that is described as spicy in a country where everything is spicy without even having to say so. This must be really spicy. I should try it." My lapse in reasoning occurred with the last sentence: "I should try it." My reasoning should have instead continued like this, "Damn, that must really fucking hot, I'd better stay away." Well I ordered it, a garlic chicken salad, and I couldn't eat even half of it. Easily the second hottest thing I've ever eaten.

So back to tonight. Maybe I should have gotten the regular Smart Choice High Fiber Pork Bulgogi Marinade, but I didn't. At first the food was just hot cause it was right off the frying pan, and the rice bed was right out of the rice cooker. That's the worst, when the temperature is so hot that you don't notice that the spice is way hot too. Well my nose was running and my face was red when I was about a quarter of the way in, and I only had so much beer left to chase it down with. I tried to eat a bit more and just got scorched so I let it alone for awhile. I guess it wasn't as hot as the chicken salad in Thailand, 'cause I was able to finish it after the temperature cooled down a bit. Anyway, that ice cream was real good. The Lions are still down by two and they only have one inning left. I was going to have the pork gogi with some potatoes that have been sitting around for almost a couple weeks that I have been meaning to mash up, but that seemed like too much work. Potatoes stay good for awhile too anyway, I think. Cooking is tough because you can't just look around a supermarket and buy the same stuff that you're used to cooking with back in the states. And no one cooks with ovens, they don't consider ovens a basic appliance, and I think I've only talked to one person in my whole time here that has one. So basically I've had to adapt my cooking style, what there is of one, to the food I can find and recognize. It's not so bad. It's easy enough to throw some rice in the cooker and fry up some mandu, or buy some bulgogi and eat that, or even just go down the street to E-Mart and order something at the food court. And half the time I end up eating out anyway, especially with Korean culture being so group-oriented and all. For example, last Thursday I bought a pizza on the way home from the school field trip to an amusement park cause I was so hungry I couldn't be bothered to shop for and cook food. And then Friday I had to leave school early and go downtown for a meeting some some folks that I am going to be working with to judge an English essay contest, and they brought me out to eat after that, as seems par for the course anytime you have any sort of meeting. Saturday I was at the temple and got fed there. Sunday I got brought out to dinner by the people who were filming me and the Swedish babe Fanny for the promotional video. Monday night I ate out with the other English teachers from my school to celebrate the open class, or demo class I guess you could call it, the previous Friday. Tuesday I guess I cooked a meal, or more accurately combined the dregs of what was left of food scrounged from my cupboards and fridge. Wednesday I met some other native English teachers downtown and we chowed on Western food at the Holy Grill. So I guess with my meal tonight, that makes two meals I've made in the past week.

Well shit, the Lions just lost. Season over.