Tuesday, February 17, 2009

My tabletop stove




It's been awhile since I've posted on here. But the kids have a lot of homework on the weekends, so we can't really go anywhere. About 3PM, we give up and head to the base pool and swim indoors to burn out the kids. Then they usually sleep a little better. A few weeks ago, we went down to Osan and got fitted for matching leather custom-made motorcycle jackets. We'll have to post a pic of them. I didn't get anything put on the back of them. Maybe I'll get a Korean dragon embroidered on it or something, who knows. I haven't found anything that suits my fancy yet.
We've been playing a little "Rock Band and Guitar Hero" here, but I'm happy to say we don't play the Wii as much as I thought we would.
Here's a pic of my new table top stove. I have no idea what they're called, but in the local joints, they have burners in the tables you cook on as you eat. So I got some pork and we cooked it and ate it with rice. The burner was 30,000 won ($22 USD) and takes these aerosol cans of propane or butane or whatever. I don't know if you can get them in the States, but you can't get a Coleman stove for $20 this nice. I need to get the soup pan and the bulgogi pan so I can make those things.
They sell this stuff around here called "Base Soup" and the Korean name escapes me. But it hails from the early days of the ROK (1948ish) when the locals basically ate out of the GIs' garbage cans. They'd take the cheese, milk, hot dogs, meats, and vegetables and throw it all in a pot with lots of spices and heat it up to boiling. The spice and heat would kill the bacteria so they could eat it. I'm sure there's a few people out there that are grateful to Uncle Sam for the extra food they got. Which brings me to my next point. They are so competative around here (driving/NOT waiting in line, etc.) because back then, you snooze, you lose. So they just grabbed what they needed and ran. Like today, I ran a stoplight in front of a cop and they didn't stop me. They sit at intersections and talk or sleep with their roof lights on. So if they're going to give away their position like that and sit out in the open, then I'm going to run the lights. It's much more important here to keep traffic moving than to sit at a light if there's no one coming. They cautioned us at the Experienced Rider's Course for the motorcycle that you need to be aware of how the drivers expect you to act. Motorcycles here are considered pedestrians, so you can get away with murder on a bike- and I take full advantage of it, too. I can get to work really fast, because I'm passing all the cars that are sitting still. People tell me someone will open a door on me, but they'll lose that door, because 900 pounds of Harley with 165 pounds of me on it will not be stopped by a Daewoo or Chairman door for that matter, and it's 100% their fault, since I'm the pedestrian. There's Long Guns pipes on the bike, so they'll hear me coming long before they see anything or the door gets knocked off.
I feel the inspiration for another post coming on.

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