SKIRMISHER

Just got back from sleeping over at the house of a real live Korean family. They live in Deokso, just outside the eastern part of Seoul. Their condo unit is on the 14th floor and they have a good view of the mighty Han river (at the moment muddy and swollen from several weeks of hard rain). This is the same river that cuts through Seoul, separating the comparatively ancient northern area from the suburb-y nouveau riche south.

The dorm manager in my buddy chef Tristan’s kosiwon (off-campus dorm) invited Tris, me, lawyer Joan and Indonesian chef Danial to his family’s house. I met the dorm manager (we call him James Dean for ease, not for his looks) last month, during Joan’s birthday, when we had a rooftop party at their dorm. Actually, I dunno why I got invited. I don’t live at their kosiwon, and I had met James Dean only once before. Joan said I’m sikat (may be translated as either popular/famous, or notorious) at their dorm. From what I gather, I’m like a punchline over there.

Anyway, I’m glad I got invited. James Dean has a good family, very kind. And his apojee (dad) is funny-hilarious*, even if I could understand only 10% of what the old man said. James’s hyong (older brother) and his family were also there. The two kids were the first Korean kids I’ve actually quasi-spoken to. The girl is fourteen (but trendy enough to pass for one of my 18-year-old students at UP) and thinks Danial looks a bit like pee (not what you think! she means that korean singer named Rain; rain=pee). And James’s omoni (mom) showed us how to make kimchi.

It turned out tasting quite different from the fermented swill usually found at sikdangs (restaurants) because there’s no fermented baby shrimp in the recipe. It was fresh, mildly briny, not fishy at all. (The downside for me was the inclusion of white sugar and MSG. As expected, I had a migraine minutes after dinner. Screw umami, MSG just isn’t healthy.) Apparently, there are thousands of different recipes for kimchi, using a mix of veggies like cucumber, zucchini, various cabbages. Seems whatever grows can be kimchied. The different regions, towns, even families have their own timpla. At lunch and dinner, there were at least six different kinds of kimchi on the table.

One thing I didn’t really enjoy was sleeping on the floor. The western-style chimde (bed), cheksang (table) and euyja (chair) were introduced here only in the past few decades. So Koreans really love their floors; they can do everything pretty much at floor level. (Readers with dirty minds: kindly stop giggling.) Anyway, this cultural peculiarity and historical accident has resulted in my not only having right now a bad cough and cold, but also a very sore back. Yay.

* For an ajussi, James Dean’s dad seems more cosmopolitan than young people in that he’s curious about other cultures and revels in actual discourse. He asked, for instance, how we eat in our own countries (whether by chopstick, spoon+fork, or hand). He also asked about this quaint custom he had heard of called siesta, which he does not approve of. Traditional hardworking Koreans like him say that a person who naps after lunch (and here he mimes shoveling food into his mouth, closes his eyes and snores) is a twiji, a pig/swine.

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