Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Cabin fever

I am just so sick of sitting around in my apartment. But I'm told that if I don't let that muscle re-attach cleanly, it'll scar and pull easily again once "healed". Sigh. At least this is the last day of "don't use it at all", at which point it merely becomes, "be very careful not to re-injure it while it heals"... so I get to do the warm compress, very light stretch, message, ice it down cycle that M-B mentioned, and walking with more normalcy albeit with heel lifts until the muscle is back to full length again.

Oh well, at least I got to find a nice new Korean restaurant via Yelp once I am back ambulatory again. Which reminds me that I have a motivation to learn Korean -- to learn how to order in Korean restaurants without having to look at the (often inaccurate) English translations! Korean is a fairly regular language due to its fairly recent vintage (like Spanish, it benefits from a king gathering together a bunch of scholars to define, "this is the language"), and has a phonetic alphabet, albeit one that's used in somewhat odd ways (syllables are created by stringing the phonemes in a square pattern, then the syllables are strung together to make words). And if I learn it well, maybe I can go check out some of the restaurants that the Fat Man visits in Seoul, heh!

-- Badtux the Gimpy Penguin

4 comments:

  1. oh take care of yourself....bummer...rest and let it heal..great idea about learning Korean....there are alot of Learning Videos on youtube...(I am studying Thai....and french...)

    Hang in there...

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  2. yes heal...... and on 32nd st street here in manhattan they have a ton of korean restaurants -- now you got me thinking to try one even tho i have no idea what i will be served

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  3. Start with Bibimbob and kimchi.mmmm so good. I once saw a menu translation of the former as "bad old Mongol meat."

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  4. dol sot bibim bop, the kind that comes in a hot stone bowl, is a great introduction to Korean food for anglos. Get the kind that comes with kimchi, and stir in the red sauce when you're stirring the rest of the mess together. It will come with shredded beef, some veggies, and a raw egg on top and be bubbling as the rice finishes cooking, your job is to stir the ingredients together (all of which are in the bowl) to basically make Korean Fried Rice. Omit the kimchi when you order if you can't deal with the spices. Note that this is a very robust dish... the typical bowl served at a typical Korean restaurant will fill you up even without the panchan (the little side dishes typically served with meals at Korean restaurants, such as sprouts, fresh kimchi, pickled radish, etc.).

    My personal favorite is kimchi jigae, which tastes a lot like my granny's cabbage soup. Yeah, Cajun grannies make spicy soups :-). But it is *spicy*. I love spicy food, but kimchi jigae makes even *my* nose run.

    Click on the Fat Man's link and start reading through his food journey through Korea if you want to see pictures and descriptions of Korean food for Anglos. I saw a dish mentioned that I didn't know, and went to the Fat Man's site, and there it was. Definitely a nice site for Seoul food, even though he no longer lives in Korea and thus no longer updates it.

    - Badtux the Foodie Penguin

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