Burmese kimchi?

With a hat tip to WK, I give you... Burmese kimchi!


The globalasianculture website describes it thus:

Mogok Rice Noodles with Stewed Chicken, topped with Shan Preserved Mustard Leaves, or 'Burmese Kimchi.'

To which WK editorialized:

NOOOOoooooo!!!!

The header for the email was "WTF?", but that's a long-running header for all sorts of things sent back and forth between several of us. (WK wasn't also fond of the idea of kimchi beer.)

I'm guessing I have less of a problem with the Burmese kimchi than WK. Y'see, folks like ZenKimchi are adeptly promoting Korean food like there's no tomorrow, and like everything else, that comes with unintended consequences. As Korean food becomes more "mainstream," I've seen more and more examples of the word kimchi being used as a descriptive stand-in for other countries' pickled vegetable dishes.

And someday, when we start hearing about Irish kimchi, we know that usage has arrived. In the meantime, I'm guessing that ZenKimchi (judging by his comment at the recent smoothie post) would rather see pickled mustard leaves described as kimchi than Kyochon Chicken, Smoothie King, Kraze Burger, Mr Pizza, and Paris Baguette, marketed as Korean food.

Now, I am not a foodie. Simply put, I'm lethargic about trying new things but I like just about everything put in front of me, including things others don't like and things I probably shouldn't like. But I must admit that pickled mustard leaves with some egg and banana (?) and mango (?) thrown in sounds very appealing. (Hawaii has made me love mango, except during mango season, when they are literally falling off the trees and you can't give 'em away!)

...

"L.A.'s first modern Korean restaurant?"

Or is the Los Angeles Times story, despite its inquisitive headline, merely bastardization fusion of Korean food?

I'll have more on this later, but right now I'm at the Kahala Mall Apple Store admiring the new iPads which I'm not going to get. (More on that later as well.)

Sent from my iPad

... 

oldgirl

Before.

Over at Seoul Eats, foodie-blogger and all-around-good-guy Daniel Gray has a cute video showing Alice Shin, the winner of the P.F. Chang blogging contest, downing a live octopus, à la oldboy. Okay, it's a smaller octopus than the one in the movie, but Alice Shin appears to be a smaller person as well, so it's all good.

During.

Apologies to Alice Shin herself, as I'm probably picking the most unflattering stills from the video. Because to me this is an ode to the eight-legged one, not the woman devouring it. Sure, there's probably the story of a marathon struggle of her own in there as well, but I usually root for the underpod (at one point before consumption it appears to attempt escape).

After.

Me, I prefer my live raw octopus sliced up. Whole live octopus is dare food. Like kimchi-flavored Everclear, pŏndegi, or Cheetos.

Also, I would have checked with my food-mates first to make sure they're up on their first aid, particularly the Heimlich maneuver.

Oh, and if Daniel Gray ever invites you to take a tour of Noryangjin Fish Market with him, take him up on it.