Fresssssssshhhhh….

This evening, Sang Jae and I were walking right at dusk, that perfect time of evening. The air wrapped us in a blanket of warm softness, not the oppressive heat so common during the day. The light slowly changed from amber, to a barely perceptible pink, to a deep lavender, before fading to a deep darkness.

“I want to eat pork.” Okay. That’s fine with me. We wound our way through the alleys, dodging small children on rollerblades, avoiding cars that drove just a little too close. We came to his favorite kalbi restaurant, the one with the jovial cartoon pig on the front. You wouldn’t be so happy if you knew what they were serving inside, poor little piggie, I thought to myself.

We entered, tossed off our sandals, and sat down at one of the tables only inches off the floor. He ordered. Pork for two. I like going to the kalbi restaurants with Sang Jae. He eats almost all of the meat. I eat almost all of the side dishes. There’s never any arguing over who gets what. I devour the tiny dishes of peanuty spinach, spicy kim chi, vinegary lettuce, chilled seaweed, sesameed turnips, all the vegetables he could care less about. As I was carefully maneuvering my chopsticks to clasp a few pieces of lettuce, I noticed something moving in my bowl. Upon further investigation, I discovered a small black bug. I’m not sure what it was, other than alive. Sang Jae noticed me examining the creature. “No problem. Eat.” I don’t know… “No. Very good. Bug in salad means very, very fresh.” I considered this logic. He’s got a point. As I continued eating the lettuce (avoiding spearing the bug) I thought to myself, This is what I’ll miss about living here. The oh, so original points of view.