Food Sells

My favorite dish is 부대찌개. If my face could avoid being bloated constantly, I would eat this every day. Behold! a food picture!

You can substitute spam or pepperoni for the little sausage things, and rice cakes are better than tofu, but you are not allowed to substitute Shin Ramen. It just won’t taste the same…

Regardless of what you do(n’t) put into the dish, there are so many variations that you should just try them all. Your tastebuds will thank you. Your stomach will thank you. Unless you are sensitive to spicy food, in which case, you’ll get no thanks for your efforts. But I will thank you for spreading the love around.

[Tangent: I love spam. And tofu. And ramen. These are all unhealthy (except tofu, given context), but they taste wonderful in Korean food. Don’t hate. Expand your horizons.]

Also,  I read Alice McDermott’s Charming Billy for my Writing Place workshop with Madeleine Blais for Thursday.

It has one of the most interesting narrative structures I have seen, and I really enjoyed it. I love Dennis as a character, flawed though he is. But then again, isn’t that what makes us human?

I felt like I was reading a contemporary classic. Les Miserables is my favorite book; I try to read it every year. What struck me about Charming Billy was its parallel to Jean Valjean; it had the same quality of unveiling an ensemble cast, and while everyone got to sing their piece, it really came back to Dennis as a main character (not Billy, as the title feels). It is also one of those books you probably need to read at least twice to really appreciate, because you do need to pay quite a bit of attention to each paragraph.

It really is a great read, and I could talk about this book for days, so if you want to talk about it, drop a comment. I would put it on a must-read reading list, if ever I made one.

On a side note, my Writing Place class is the best. Because half the class will be at AWP (I will be wearing my Print Oriented Bastards t-shirt), Maddie substituted  that week’s class with a trip to Versailles Restaurant, “The World’s Most Famous Cuban Restaurant.” What follows is a series of pictures  until I got distracted. I highly recommend the skirt steak, flan, and sangria, although you couldn’t possibly go wrong with any choice. Ask the waiters for suggestions. They’re all adorable.

Ceviche

Half of our class

skirt steak (my personal favorite!)

romantic music~~

giant cruise ship on the Pier at Miami, on the way back that probably dwarfs the Titanic (anyone know the name of this mammoth?)

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On an end note, I like this quote: “Your handwriting. The way you walk. Which china pattern you choose. It’s all giving you away. Everything you do shows your hand. Everything is a self portrait. Everything is a diary.” – Chuck Palahniuk

Everything gives you away. So I am being honest about why I am ending today with a youtube video on owls. I love owls. Owls and elephants and penguins. Click on the owl picture. Click on the elephant. Especially the elephant.