Mexican food in Seoul is sparse and a bit cryptic. One will hear rumors, strange utterings; one will follow them around dark corners, through alleys, transfer stations, up hills and down them again, always wondering what was the name of the subway stop at which you were suppose to exit. You write it down, but nothing is ever spelled like it is spoken here. Everyword has many spellings. You finally come upon the restaurant and feel you have been traveling for days.
The chips are placed before you and they might be stale and cold. They might serve them to you in a bowl the size of an ash tray. The salsa is not salsa. It's probably just diced tomatoes. Then the food comes and it may make you want to scream for the price you are paying. The food is all cold and flavorless, hard and tacky. All this is possible...but then one day you hear that there is an On The Border in Sinchon. You tell them to shut up and stop filling you with such nonsense. Shut up! you say. They say, No, you shut up!
You find the On The Border, and it is real. It is in Sinchon on the green line. You pray over the food. The chips are perfect. The waiters are puppy dogs, so kind you want to pet them. The hot cheese and beans go down and reside in your stomach as dense as mortar, but you are content. You don't care if it is still not as good as that hole in the wall you know back home called Rosita's or El Sol. It is good. It is El Seoul. Thank you, Lord.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
This Old Seoul
My sincere apologies to the masses. This blog is very late and has been long-coming. First off, I commit this blog to the Lord Jesus Christ, praying that He establish my thoughts. I wouldn't have it any other way.
I begin this first entry desiring to express the things that will be revealed in this blog: poems, rantings, pictures, first-hand accounts, narratives, whatever whim proceeds out of me. There will not be, of course, any gossip or slander. That stuff is trash, and it is lifeless. If this doesn't suit you then move on now. For those of you who remain, I am honored to share with you what is and what will be my experience in Seoul, South Korea. Let the ravings of this old Seoul begin!
I begin this first entry desiring to express the things that will be revealed in this blog: poems, rantings, pictures, first-hand accounts, narratives, whatever whim proceeds out of me. There will not be, of course, any gossip or slander. That stuff is trash, and it is lifeless. If this doesn't suit you then move on now. For those of you who remain, I am honored to share with you what is and what will be my experience in Seoul, South Korea. Let the ravings of this old Seoul begin!
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