Bars and SPAM

I have two eating habits in Korea of which Mrs Stumbler doesn't approve - beer and SPAM. I have observed Korean women have a strange fascination with cameras. I always have my camera in my bag, and if one of the bartenders sees it, watch out. They start taking pictures of everything around, especially themselves. I need to ask YS#1 if this is popular with her University friends in America, but I wonder this may be an Asian thing. Here are some recent gems taken of The Stumbler (I can't seem to keep my tongue inside my mouth it seems):




I often encounter a guest at the bar who wants to strike up a conversation with me. One such fellow recently turned out to be cartoonist, and took it upon himself to draw a caricature of me! I have no idea why he made the caption, but I guess I was asking too many questions (something that I have been told over and over again since childhood by people).



Much to Mrs Stumbler's chagrin, besides beer, SPAM has recently crept into my diet. According to the sometimes-reliable Wikipedia, the largest consumer of SPAM outside of the United States is the UK and South Korea. And within the USA, Hawaii consumes the most SPAM per capita than any other state. With all the time I spend in Korea and Hawaii, it's no wonder that I've picked up the SPAM habit. I only have one photo of a SPAM meal recently, a simple dinner I made with fried rice, SPAM, mushrooms and kimchi (and of course some iced green tea to drink).



Oh, in case anyone was wondering, SPAM should be spelled in all capital letters, and should be used as an adjective, not a noun as I've done in this sentence.

Finally, wrapping up this post are some food photos and an embarassing taste test. We went to dinner recently, at a traditional Korean restaurant. That hamburger looking steak was really delicous, I hesitate to even call it a burger.




During the dinner, there was a man and woman dressed in some funny clothes going around from table to table. They stopped at our table, and my friends all suddenly pointed to me and said "He will do it". Turns out this was a soju (traditional korean liquor) taste test for a new brand of soju, one I don't particularly like. Let's say that I like brand A, and they were promoting brand B. They gave me this blindfold, and I had to do a taste test and tell them my favorite one. What is surprising is this - I knew they were promoting brand B, so I tried to identify brand B by taste and tell them that was my favorite one. However, when I was done, turns out I had made a mistake and told them that brand A was my favorite. So much for being polite.