Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
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I got a real education after researching the Vin Diesel photo. Turns out that a lot of ripped movie stars let themselves go during their down time, and they just hope they don’t get photographed while out of shape. I suppose it’s hard work to maintain a particular physique all the time, so sometimes, you just gotta let it all hang out. Hang way out over your belt, that is.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/September/2022 @ 8:10 am
The magnetic charm of Snackbar! Nothing weird about staying at a place you enjoy.
Sorry to hear you got soaked, feet and all. I used to like the prospect of the Korean monsoon because it meant relief from the oppressive summer heat, but this year, the rains have dragged on and on. It’s almost enough to make me a climate-change warrior… but if all social problems get blamed on climate change, what does climate change get blamed on? Oh, I know! Racism! The circle is now complete.
That last image looks vaguely familiar. At least it’s not as bad as that Vin Diesel pic.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/September/2022 @ 10:45 pm
With a program like Photoshop, you can put together a physically large document that shows a lot of detail. When you put it on your blog, there’s probably a “thumbnail” option (like on my blog) that will show the image at a scaled-down size. Click on the image to see it full-size. Come to think of it, I do that on your blog already: I can click any of your uploaded photos to see it at a larger size.
As a former religious-studies student, I think in terms of mythology, and it occurred to me that, with your ranking system that goes from the best bars to the worst, you could create a series of “Dante”-themed pub crawls based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. You may recall that Dante’s Divine Comedy was written in three parts: all the high-school kids know Inferno, but there’s also Purgatorio and, finally, Paradiso. It’s a journey upwards from hell to glory. So by my thinking, Inferno would be a crawl of all the lowest-ranking bars—a bona fide trip through hell. Purgatorio would then be all the second-tier bars, and last but not least, Paradiso would be the top-tier bars, ending with whichever of the top tier is your most-most favorite.
You don’t have to do an orthodox Dante, of course. Heck , with about 30 bars on your list, you could do a series of mini-Dantes—one crawl could be a set of ten bars from worst to best, then there’d be a second crawl on a different day, and then a third crawl on a third day—three trips from hell to heaven. Or you could reverse everything and do a humorous “journey into hell,” starting with the best bars and moving down, down to the very worst. (I guess you’d probably want to keep this information away from the bar owners: no one wants to know you think their bar’s among the worst.)
Or forgo the Dante idea altogether and create crawls that are linked by theme, by best drink, by hottest bar girls, etc. (For you, though, it’s pretty much San Mig Zero or gin wherever you go, eh? I don’t recall ever seeing you acting like a beer connoisseur.)
Anyway, the sky’s the limit, but I’m partial to the Dante idea for a pub crawl. That’s just me, though. I’ll be curious to see what sort of adventure you end up planning.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/September/2022 @ 10:25 pm
All the food looks good. And the browning on your burrito looks great! You got both sides, right?
If your burrito’s insides are still cold after searing the outside tortilla, finish the burrito in your microwave, maybe 1:30 or 2 minutes depending on how much you want to irradiate your food. (Kidding… microwaves don’t contaminate your food with lingering radiation; they simply excite the water molecules in your food, forcing them into a frenzied dance that produces friction, and with friction comes heat.)
I don’t normally prepare pork the American way… when was the last time I even had a proper pork chop? I know pork goes well with apples, so you could make a side of apple-pie filling (apples, some sugar, some cinnamon, a few drops of lemon juice, and some cornstarch to thicken the mix) and eat that along with your pork. A Google search of “spices and seasonings for flavorful pork chops” leads to this result: Pork Chop Seasoning. Basically:
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon dried mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar (optional: leave out for a sugar-free seasoning mix)The base of pretty much any seasoning is going to be salt, pepper, and garlic powder. The Barbecue Pit Boys on YouTube even refer to that as SPG (salt, pepper, garlic). To add layers of flavor, then do as you see above: add onion powder, hot/smoky spices like paprika and cayenne (or chipotle powder, which is awesome), dried herbs like oregano, and some sugar to bring things down from being too hot. The above spice/seasoning mix is pretty standard—and not just for pork. with some adjustments, you can use the above on beef and maybe even chicken.
If you want your pork chops to be respectably crusty, but not burned, keep flipping them as you’re doing, but up the amount of sugar from the recipe above. Sugar, when exposed to heat, tends to caramelize. Just be careful—as you yourself said—not to burn everything. Sugar and spice, when burned, both become bitter.
Quite a lot of photos with this post; seems to have been a good time, and the views, as always, are beautiful. I wonder if the PI’s rain has any connection with the typhoon currently heading our way. It’s still not far from Taiwan, but it’s heading north to Korea for sure. No rain yet in Seoul, but it’s getting windy outside; that’s probably the leading edge of the typhoon. I hope this doesn’t lead to more major flooding; we just got done with a flood. Rain in earnest is to start early Sunday morning for us, and it’s going on through at least Tuesday.
I’m loving the glimpse we get of the dog that hikes with you guys. Buddy seems big and robust enough to go on such hikes; Lucky seems to be more of a stay-at-home kind of dog.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/September/2022 @ 10:40 pm
Sounds as though you need larger tortillas to make a proper burrito. Get the huge ones if you can. Pile your filling in the middle, and have at least five inches of space all around so you have enough material to fold and roll. Sam the Cooking Guy’s folding technique is shown here. Note the quantity of filling and the size of his tortilla. (He also weighs the thing!) If you don’t want to make a huge burrito, use a smaller tortilla, but don’t overstuff it with filling—you need less filling than you might think. If you’re still hungry, then make two burritos. Or three.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/September/2022 @ 5:17 pm
Burritos! We were supposed to have burritos at work today, but they turned out to be tacos. Still dingle-damn delicious.
As for browning the tortillas: I guess I should have clarified that you’re generally supposed to get the burrito into its classic cylinder shape before you brown it. Lay out the tortilla, put in the filling, wrap the thing up, then brown away on both the top and the bottom. If you’ve laid down cheese on the inside, then the cheese will usually melt deliciously. I’m pretty sure that, in previous comments, I’ve linked you to some videos that show what I mean. If not, check this video out. The guy in the video does some things I disagree with as he’s prepping his meal (not using cumin or cilantro, for example, and adding way too much lemon juice to everything), but his browning technique is on point.
I think we’re all waiting for Gandalf to invite us on an adventure. But while we wait, we can entertain ourselves by planning and going on adventures of our own.
That said, I don’t envy you that hike you did through knee-deep water… and whatever mud lay underneath it. Talk about sucking—the suction of that mud could lead you to lose your footwear!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/September/2022 @ 7:13 pm
James brings up an interesting point. Think you have what it takes to make a connect-the-dots map of the various bars and their locations relative to each other, to the center of town, etc., with your apartment as the main point of reference? If not, you could send me the addresses of all those bars (I have your address), and I could use Photoshop to make said map.
Man… imagine planning the ultimate pub crawl, just like in that movie “The World’s End.” Hitting every single bar for a single drink. Or if that’s too much for one night, you could plan multiple routes, and even a Pub Crawl Olympics!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/September/2022 @ 4:53 pm
Pulled-pork sandwich looks good! Whatchew got against corn chips?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/September/2022 @ 7:07 pm
directly across the street from the Catholic church
Them Catholics know their liquor. Always good to have a watering hole nearby after you’re done talking to God.
I’ll be curious to see what sort of food they sell at Mugshots.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/September/2022 @ 4:59 pm
COPD rears its ugly head. I don’t know what you can do to minimize the frequency of attacks… maybe your doctors can suggest something. Meantime, I guess you gave your masseuse a scare, eh? Do you think she’ll ever come back, or is she worried she might kill you?
Those beef prices are typical for Korea, but I’m seeing a general price rise here, too, on items other than beef. We’re all feeling the pinch.
I get the impression that the PI is an age-gap paradise if you’re a Western retiree. Creepy Joe (and Clint Eastwood, too, really, although history’s going to forgive Eastwood) would feel right at home! Bring on the pricey meat!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 31/August/2022 @ 4:48 pm
Wow, that’s a lot of Hashers!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/August/2022 @ 9:39 pm
Breakfast looks to be a classic. With my love of carbs, I’d probably add hash browns to that.
Yeah, “Ferme la bouche” is literally “Close your mouth,” but “Shut up!” is more naturally “Ta gueule!” or “Ferme-la!” (literally, “shut it!”).
[A gueule is the mouth of an animal. When the French want to insult you, they’ll replace human body parts with animal parts to be degrading. “Where’s your brain?” is “Où est ta cervelle?”—where cervelle is an animal’s brain while the normal human brain is called a cerveau.
That’s a nice, dick-shaped path you trod with the ladies, there. Too bad there’re no balls.
It’s taken a bit of a turn into religion, with the US government playing the role of Satan.
Now I’m interested. “Government is evil” is not the standard leftie line.
Steak looks good! And I wouldn’t have a problem with New Zealand beef. Those Kiwis know how to farm.
As for fish tacos… I’ve always been interested by the concept, but I keep thinking that I’d need to eat about twenty in order to feel even a little full. Fish are not very substantial, which is probably why they figure in so many diets.
Happy trails!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/August/2022 @ 2:32 pm
Karen sounds a lot nicer than Carol.
My first beers in my 67th year
Technically, your 68th year. You’re now 67, yes, but you had it right when you said earlier that you had completed your 67th trip around the sun. That’s what “67” means: you’ve been around 67 times, and now, you’re starting your 68th trip.
All that said, that’s a beautiful cake!
Many happy returns.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/August/2022 @ 4:50 pm
Well! With Marissa back in town, I guess we’ll see whether you’ve learned any lessons! As for Marissa’s reappearance, maybe Barretto is the kind of place that keeps pulling you back in. That’s true here in Korea. I’ve seen plenty of expats go “Fuck this place,” leave for supposedly greener pastures… then come slinking back. Because that’s the gravitational power of South Korea.
I’m glad, at least, that someone made a cake for you, given how many brownies and muffins and vats of chili you make for others.
Enjoy the hell out of that steak. You can’t lose when you visit John’s place. I’m still fascinated by that menu of his, which you displayed a while back. I’d spend days or even weeks working my way through that.
Happy Birthday! Onward to 70! Charge!
(Oh, yeah: my French Papa, who’s around 90 now, told me in 2018 that he felt pretty good until he hit 70, and that’s when things started really slowing down for him. So that’s the standard you have to beat. You gonna be the same incorrigibly randy, priapic old skirt-chaser by the time you’re 80?)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/August/2022 @ 6:38 pm
Yeah, I was just realizing that tomorrow is your birthday. Happy 67, geezer! I hope the tooth issue resolves itself soon. No one likes that sort of birthday present from Mother Nature.
I’m a lazy bastard, so let’s just say that the book I mailed you is your birthday present. Otherwise, I’d mail you a gag gift like a Fleshlight for your birthday.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/August/2022 @ 6:19 pm
a. Coming into Naugsal.
b. Leaving Naugsol behind.One of these spellings is correct. I’m guessing (b), based on past posts.
Chili looks good… except for those onion-looking bits. Grrr. Muffins and brownies also look good. I’m reminded of the old riddle: When does a Cub Scout become a Boy Scout? When he eats his first Brownie.
Every time you say it’s “feeding time” for the girls, it always feels to me as if you’re tossing bloody flesh to ravenous lions or vampires chained up in a dungeon. There’s something animalistic about saying that someone or something “feeds.” That said, since I like that gory image, please do continue to say “feeding time.”
The walks through town showcase the local poverty, but those spaces are also very colorful—an interesting mix of bright and depressing.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/August/2022 @ 4:22 pm
Looking closer, I discovered they had my favorite, Butterfinger flavor!
I laughed and laughed when I read this because I know the internal struggle all too well, not to mention the rationalizations that go along with it: “I know I shouldn’t, but I haven’t seen this flavor around in a long time, so… just this once…” Yup.
Here in Korea, paying more for meds is commonplace. The consult with the doc never costs that much, but the meds are another matter (they’re still cheaper than meds in the States, though, by far). And if I get any testing done, like a blood test, that’s going to pump up the consultation fee.
By “dory fish,” do you mean the Blue Hippo Tang (a.k.a. Blue Tang)?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/August/2022 @ 7:01 pm
Looks to have been an adventure, mud and all! I’m notoriously clumsy on slippery surfaces, and as a big guy, I’m always petrified of falling and possibly breaking my tailbone. At least you got through it all. Now, on to the next hike!
(Did you sit on the ice because you’d fallen?)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/August/2022 @ 6:37 pm
That rendering, sumneun-gos, makes for a good opportunity to talk about transliteration versus transcription. Sumneun-gos is a transliteration, i.e., a literal letter-for-letter rendering of the original Korean. If a non-Korean-speaker were to try to pronounce that, actual Koreans would have some difficulty understanding because that last syllable isn’t pronounced “gos.” A transcription, by contrast, faithfully renders the sounds of the language such that, when a foreign reader tries to say the original word, s/he can pronounce it with some degree of accuracy.
So in Korean, “hideaway” is 숨는 곳, transcribed as sumneun-got. The verb sumda (숨다) is “to hide.” 숨는 (sumneun) is the adjectival form. The word got (곳) means “place,” so a 숨는 곳 is literally a “hiding place,” i.e., a hideaway. If you remember your Korean alphabet, you’ll notice that 곳/got has a Korean letter “s” at the end, but at the end of a syllable, the ㅅ is pronounced like an unaspirated “t,” like the “t” in “Read it” (unaspirated = no puff of air at the end—you don’t say “Read it-euh” in natural English). Many Korean consonants sound like “t” at the end of a syllable:
곧 (got) = soon
곳 (got) = place
맛 (mat) = taste
맞 (mat) = to be hit, to be correct
잊 (it) = forget
몇 (myeot) = how much/many
곁 (gyeot) = beside, next toIf the next syllable after ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ, or ㅌ begins with a vowel, though, the letter is pronounced the original way. Examples:
곧 와요 (godwayo) = (he’s) coming soon
이곳이 (i goshi) = this place
맛있어요 (mashisseoyo) = this is tasty
맞아요 (majayo) = you’re right
잊었어요 (ijeosseoyo) = I forgot
며칠후 (myeochilhu) = several days later
곁에 있는 사람 (gyeotae itneun saram) = the person beside meSo sumneun-gos isn’t incorrect: it’s a correct transliteration. But if your goal is to get people to pronounce the phrase correctly, then a transcription (sumneun-got) is better. Google Translate (which I’m guessing you used) tends to transliterate, leading to inaccurate pronunciations.
OK… that’s the end of today’s pedantry.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/August/2022 @ 7:39 pm
I’m betting it was inadvertent, but I thought it was funny.
As for this:
Sad not to be a pic of the pulled-pork sandwich, but it will live on in my head.
I must have been drunk or high. I think I meant either
Sad not to SEE a pic of the pulled-pork sandwich, but it will live on in my head.
or
Sad FOR THERE not to be a pic of the pulled-pork sandwich, but it will live on in my head.
I blame auto-correct. Or age.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/August/2022 @ 9:02 am
By the way, I just saw a burrito video you might enjoy, especially if you can get your hands on some chorizo (spicy Mexican/Spanish sausage).
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/August/2022 @ 6:56 pm
Well, that Hot Zone dancer is certainly letting it all hang out. Nothing left to the imagination. And since we’re on the subject of muffs, those muffins look good. Sad not to be a pic of the pulled-pork sandwich, but it will live on in my head.
The Wet Spot dancers are posed in a way that reminds me of the Buddhist temple guardians known as the Four Heavenly Kings (sa-cheon-wang—do a Google Images search for 사천왕, and you’ll see what I mean: very similar martial poses).
How’re your feet?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/August/2022 @ 4:50 pm
Sorry for the crappy [photo. About] all you can see are Aine’s great boobs.
I’m almost afraid to ask: are those her real boobs this time? I can no longer tell.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/August/2022 @ 5:52 pm
I hope the ball of your foot heals up. Always annoying when random pains hit. For most pains, I just say “Walk it off,” but some pains get worse when you do that. Rest up, enjoy your SOB, and here’s hoping for a better Saturday.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/August/2022 @ 6:46 pm
Ted,
I would have expected that your readership was much smaller.
In my own experience, commenters represent only the tip of the iceberg in terms of actual readership. I’ve watched some blogs die, and when the blogger makes his/her final post, suddenly all these people erupt out of the woodwork saying things like “Long-time lurker, first-time commenter.” That can be frustrating—knowing there are people who have read your work for years but are too shy or too unmotivated (or too whatever) to comment. Where were you all this time, dammit?
As for the relationship between John’s blog and my own: we have totally separate blogs, but yes, I’m a fan of his, and he’s a fan of mine. He usually leaves his comments on my blog around 6:30 or 7 a.m. (Seoul time); I don’t normally see a new blog post from John until around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. When I see a post from him, I read it and often leave a comment maybe 95% of the time, but not always.
I’d say “Welcome to John’s corner of the world,” but it sounds as if you’ve been reading his blog for a while. Well, happy continued reading! John leads an entertaining life. It contains a lot of routine, yes, but there are plenty of emotional ups and downs as he endlessly makes trouble for himself. Ha!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/August/2022 @ 2:43 am
That quote on relationships doesn’t make any sense to me. A partnership is just a type of relationship, not a completely different thing. Many of the ingredients of a relationship (except a basic sense of commitment) appear in that quote, so it’s almost as if the writer is saying, “I don’t want a relationship, but I want everything that comes with a relationship. I want all the fun, but none of the responsibility (i.e., the hold-you-back part).” Weird. But hey, whatever floats your boat, right?
(And the punctuation in that quote’s first sentence… grrr.)
The sandwich looks damn good! And it’s nice to see you actually smiling in that photo with Lydell and Heidi—instead of doing that puffy/pursed-lips thing you normally do.
Eun Oke the artist! I’m trying to remember whether you’ve displayed that picture before.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/August/2022 @ 5:28 pm
Looks to have been a fun walk. Congrats on guessing right with 80% of your checkpoints.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/August/2022 @ 5:58 pm
As long as the troops are well-fed and happy, I guess all is well. Hope today’s Hash went swimmingly.
That LOTR thing reminds me: I need to look into Camino de Santiago apps. Not that there’s going to be much to plot: my buddy Mike says he wants to do only the final 100-some kilometers to Galicia—just enough to earn the compostela (stamped certificate), just enough to be able to say “I walked the Camino!” In one sense, I appreciate that Mike knows his limits and doesn’t want to do the full 800 kilometers. But I’m also a bit disappointed that Mike wants to celebrate our 60th birthday by doing only that distance. “Sad!” as Trump would say. I’m thinking I may have to go back and do the full Camino by myself.
Meanwhile, I agree that $200 is way too steep for a goofy Lord of the Rings challenge. Divide that figure by 10, and now, we’re talkin’. Or just invent your own adventure for free!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/August/2022 @ 6:55 pm
Well, “samgyapsal” isn’t even phonetically correct, so it’s good that you ditched that spelling. The middle syllable of the Korean word doesn’t rhyme with “lap” or “tap” or “gap” at all: it sounds more like “yup.” It pays to listen closely to how Koreans pronounce words.
On that note: I remember taking an adult-ed German class and sitting next to a horrible student who hated the teacher, but it was obvious that her problem was all in her head. She couldn’t even pronounce something as simple as “Ich habe” (I have)—she kept pronouncing it “Ike hah-bey,” as if she were calling for Eisenhower. I had to wonder how a person could hear a proper “Ich habe” and regurgitate a twisted “Ike hah-bey,” but some people’s brains are wired strangely. Best remedy is just to pay attention and listen closely. Oh, and practice, practice, practice.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/August/2022 @ 8:33 am
«« Back To Stats PageHey[,] Kevin, look how they spelled samgyeopsal.
At least you spell it correctly! (Just remember to add your vocative commas.)
In the official government style of romanization, the “u” always represents the “ooh” sound, as in “fool,” but Koreans, when they spell out Korean terms or their own names, won’t necessarily follow the government’s schema. This leads to confusion.
A woman spells her name “Sun Ae,” so do I pronounce “Sun” to rhyme with “fun” or with “boon”? That’s why, even if it’s initially awkward for beginning Korean-learners, it’s better to stick with the official romanization: “eo” represents the “aw” or “uh” sound, and “u” is always “ooh,” as mentioned above. So the woman really ought to spell her name “Seon-ae” or “Seon Ae.”
That’s why I hate it whenever I see “Kim Jung-un.” Properly speaking, that should be “Kim Jeong-eun.” And yes, the pork-belly cut is indeed samgyeopsal, which means “three-layer flesh” (sam/three + gyeop/layer + sal/flesh).
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/August/2022 @ 9:37 pm