What would you eat if you could choose your last meal on earth? I was asked this question by LaoCook recently. This topic has been asked before and is the idea behind “My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals”.

Since the LaoCook is a professional chef at a world-class hotel in Spain, I was apprehensive at first.  I don’t want to come off looking like a country bumpkin.  The foods I picked don’t have fancy unpronounceable names or come from any region of France.  These are foods I’ve loved eating up until now in my life.  Maybe in the future there’ll be caviar and expensive champagne in my life, but for now, I’d be happy eating any of the foods below.

Lao-Ocean Girl is teaching English in Korea and describes herself as “a glass half full kind of girl”.

My Appetizers:

A decadent Cheese Platter of 8-10 varieties, most of them sharp and strong. Also throw in some Salami for good measure.

Steamed Oysters with Sweet Chilli sauce.

A fruit platter of: Blueberries, Blackberries, Durian, Jackfruit, Avocado, Persimmons, Mangoes, Custard Apples, Mangosteens, and Guavas.

Lightly buttered White Corn on the cob.

Main Dishes:

Extremely large variety of fresh Sushi, with extra Tuna Toro and Salmon.

Crispy Roast Duck.

Nhem (You call it Laotian Rice Salad. See picture and recipe here).

A bowl of Pho (a dish of perhaps Vietnamese origins with Rice Noodles served in a Stock (Broth) normally made with Beef bones (or Chicken) and cuts such as Oxtail, Flank etc…) with soft Beef Tendon, Fatty Brisket, well done Flank, and 2 Vietnamese Meatballs.

Dim sum of: Shumai (Steamed Pork and Shrimp/or Crab dumplings), Fung Jeow (Steamed Chicken’s feet), Har Gau (translucent Shrimp dumplings).

Desserts:

Sliced Mangoes on Coconut Sticky Rice (Thai style).

Balls of Mochi (Rice Cake) Ice Cream.

Flan.

Cream Puffs.

Drinks:

Starbuck’s blended Mocha Frappuccino.

Pocari Sweat (A popular Japanese Sports/Soft Drink).

And some Red Wine.

So, those are my choices.  I just noticed there aren’t any Korean foods on my list.  If I had to choose one, it’d be bo-saam.  It’s fatty, I know, but delicious.  Since being in Korea, I’ve learned to embrace the fat in foods.  When I see foreigners cutting away the fat in samgyeopsal (3 layered pork), I shake my head and think, “They don’t know what they’re missing.”

What about you?  It doesn’t have to be a long list.  What are some things you’d definitely want to eat at your last meal???

I met up with Barbara and Amy at 1:00pm yesterday at the Seoul Museum of Art.  Amy is a docent for the Chun Kyung-ja exhibition, and gives a guided tour in English at 1pm every Saturday and Sunday.

Including me, there were seven of us on the tour, which lasted about 20 minutes.

For those interested, tickets to the museum are only 700 won and the nearest subway station is City Hall.  There’s also an abstract art exhibition going on at the same time, which runs until August 23, 2008.

After Amy got off “work,” the three of us walked to Insa-dong for lunch.  We found a great hole-in-the-wall Korean restaurant tucked away in an alley.

The food was cheap, plentiful, and unpretentious (unlike other restaurants in Insa-dong).  My “soon duboo” was 4000 won and we all shared 9 side dishes including fish. It’s very easy to get to.  Directions: With Starbucks behind you, look across the street and to your left, and you’ll see an alley.  In the alley on your left hand side, you’ll see the restaurant.  Below is also the menu.

By this time, it was pouring down rain.  We hid out at The Coffee Bean and waited for the storm to pass.

After it did, we went looking for a movie to watch.  Of course, that was a bad idea.  It seems like everybody and their mother watches movies on the weekend and most things were sold out until much later in the evening.  Instead, we decided to look for a chicken and beer place.  After a few blocks of walking around Jongno 3-ga, we found Chicken Maru.  It was only 6000 won for each of us, and that included an order of chicken and 2000cc of beer.

I finally left around 8pm for Gunpo, where I was to met Courtney, who was having her birthday party in Sanbon.

I had this really strong craving for Shin ramen and kimchi today… don’t know why.  I don’t think we’ve had any kimchi in the apartment for at least 3 months.  That was during the pork, rice, and kimchi phase.  It comes and goes.  Right now, it’s baked chicken and beef.  Anyway, my mouth was watering for kimchi.  I ventured down the 23 floors and walked to K-Mart, the small grocery store in my neighborhood.  K-Mart = Korean Mart?

They didn’t have my favorite brand, but there was CJ kimchi.  It’s a big brand, so I figured I’d try it.  You know what really convinced me to buy it?  Look at the bottom of the package.

“CJ Kimchi, Luxury In Your Mouth“  I’ve always wondered what oral luxury tastes like.  My prayers have been answered!

I also picked up these king oyster mushrooms, which are in season now and cheap.  Two bags for 1500 won (~$1.50 USD).  They’re great pan fried with butter.  I also spotted Haitai ginger ale!  The taste was ok, but for 900 won, I’d sooner buy the familiar Canada Dry ginger ale.

Last but not least, there’s a new flavor of Yoplait yogurt: cream cheese & pineapple cheese.  As weird and unpleasant as pineapple cheese sounds, I wouldn’t mind trying one… but not four for 2700 won.  Maybe they’ll have individual ones at Family Mart sometime in the future.  If so, I’ll have a taste test.

My students took their final exams today, so I’m done with university classes until September.  I’ve still got to teach our university’s children camp in July, but that will be easy.  It’s four weeks, Monday through Thursday, 1 to 5pm.  I’ll take the opportunity to go workout at least five days a week, and get my fitness on.

After the exams tonight, most of the teachers went out for beer and chicken at “Mexicana Chicken”, near my apartment.  The last time I had “Mexicana Chicken” was when the World Trade Center collapsed!  At that time,  Ras and I were living in Gangneung, Gangwon-do, and we were waiting to pick up our chicken order at the restaurant.  The TV was on, and I saw some tall building with smoke billowing from the top.  The woman there spoke in broken English, telling us she had a sister in New York.  I didn’t know what the heck she was talking about, thinking she was just trying to make polite conversation because we told her we were American.  We didn’t think anything of it until our Korean friend called on Ras’ cell phone when we were almost out of the restaurant.  He said, “Turn on the TV, your country is under attack!“  WHAT!?!  We rushed home to find more information on the internet because we didn’t have a TV.  It was so surreal to be abroad when such a monumental event happened back home.  To this day, I still don’t think I have a full grasp on what happened because all my information was diluted through the internet.  I missed not having updates from the nightly news, investigative reports, in-depth stories about heroes from the event, or a constant stream of information.  I didn’t really “feel” it like Americans did at home, and I miss that.

Anyway, getting back to my topic…  Its been almost seven years since I’ve had Mexicana Chicken.  And let me tell you, it was delicious!

While there, we had a bit of a shock when an ajumma (older lady) decided to say hello.  Needless to say, she had a little too much to drink.

Now do you see why I always carry a camera with me?  You never know what life will throw at you, so be ready to capture it.

Since I’ve got a lot more free time now, I’m back to regular posting.  Check back often.

Last week was “Festival Week” on campus.  It wasn’t as loud and rambunctious as on other campuses in Korea because my university has a no alcohol and smoking policy.  There weren’t a lot of people on campus for the afternoon festivities, and I felt a little bad for the students.  I tried to spend some money were I could, to help the student groups raise funds.

The foreign teachers also had our own booth, with our homemade food.  (I made carrot cake.)  It was all kind of thrown together quickly, but we did pretty well.  All the money raised is going to help the cyclone survivors in Myanmar.  Vegemite was the least popular food, which wasn’t a surprise.  One teacher tricked some students into thinking it tasted like chocolate and gave them a huge free sample.  You should have seen their faces!  I thought for sure they’d throw up in their mouths.  I also had some Vegemite for the second time in my life, and it was “okay.”  Not something I would crave, but it must be one of those things that grows on you.

On the second day of the festival, the Korean girl group “Jewelry” performed.  Two songs they sang were live, and two were lip-synced.  Can you tell what category the following song falls into?

You might as well have been watching this video - they both sound a little too perfect.