Kimchi Tuna and Shrimp Stew

While I can be shy in person, I am not afraid to write about myself in person; this is probably not as forthcoming as it sounds, and I am just self-absorbed. I decided to go home for fall break, because I wanted to sleep in my own bed, and eat lots of free food. Coming into town I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the city, everything has changed so much since I was here a year ago. New developments are sprouting up all over the place, there are newly planted flowers around my neighborhood, and it seems like I can see charlotte breathing, evolving, and growing up with me. I just wanted to relax, and get my mom to do my laundry, and play my dad in chess. Friends were not on my agenda, because I feel like all my friends do nowadays is party. But randomly I got a call from my friend Karrie, and she invited me to her grandmother’s house for dinner. Coming into the house, I felt like I had entered a different world. I was immediately barraged by the smell of shrimp stew and my stomach started watering. Something told me that my stomach would soon look like the Buddha statue in their hallway.

As we sat on the porch and played catch up, and laughed at how the swarming butterfly moths really look like bumble bees, and drank lemonade, I felt like there was something was forgetting. Oh yea, this assignment. Long story short, I had one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten, and I also received an enlightening lesson in asian cuisine. The difference between Japanese restaurants and Chinese restaurants is that Japanese restaurants offer more atmosphere and finer portions for a greater price; Chinese restaurants use cheap high fructose corn syrup to make their sauces so that they can offer a lot of food for a low price. The home cooked dish we had included white rice, kim, kimchi with tuna, Korean peppers, and shrimp stew. Korean kim is thin and nearly brittle seaweed used to wrap the sticky white rice in, it differs from Thai kim in that it is saltier. Proper ettiqutte is to put the kim face down on a ball of rice, and maybe a little kimchi, and roll it fast down so that the rice falls on the plate. The kimchi which you buy in the store is fermented which gives it a more sour taste, and they use a lot of red pepper. The kimchi which my friends grandmother made has more cabbage, thinly sliced carrots, not as many red peppers, vinegar, fish oil, and chunks of tuna. It is actually similar to the southern classic cole slaw. Korean peppers are just zucchinis marinated for days in a red pepper and soy brine. The table was set according to Victorian etiquette, and the bowls which contained the shrimp stew were at the top right. The stew contained shrimp, potatoes, carrots, red peppers, corn, green beans, not something that is typically Korean, but tasty nonetheless.