Pickles & Gochujang

Asia » Philippines » Rizal
April 24th 2010

Published: April 24th 2010

Another day, another excuse. I intended to get a post up when I reached my uncle Eddie's house, but unfortunately Erik's (my other uncle who's only a few months my junior, not going to bother getting into it now) laptop didn't get very good reception from the wi-fi here. Anyway, all that matters now is that we discovered going elsewhere in the house gave us excellent reception and I'm now capable of getting on.

On the connecting flight from Seoul to Manila, while I was eating lunch, I thought about that Korean girl Min-ji I met on the flight from Toronto to Seoul. The reason why? The lunch I was eating was the same meal I got for dinner during that flight, and it was Min-ji who taught me how to eat it. It was some Korean dish consisting of... stuff. Like, vegetables and herbs that you put rice on top of and mix. Doesn't sound very impressive, does it? It wasn't, but what can you expect from airplane food? I watched her as she skillfully scooped the rice package into the vegetable bowl, following it up by sprinkling the sesame oil and gochujang on the rice and mixing it up. The hot flight attendant gave me some instruction card on how to do it, but of course I refused it because I didn't want to seem like a dummy who didn't know how to mix rice and vegetables. Which I was. There was a side-dish of some weird pickles. I mean, when I saw the things I knew they were pickles, but they didn't look like pickles I was used to. They didn't taste like them, either. As if reading my mind (or maybe she just read my confused expression), Min-ji said, "Those are Korean pickles," to which I responded with, "Oh really? I knew there was something weird about them." She then warned me as I squeezed out the entire tube of gochujang, which is some kind of hot Korean chili paste, onto the rice. Me, being as manly as I am, defiantly stated "Oh, I know. I like it hot." Another thing I remembered about Min-ji was when we landed in Seoul, I was struggling to take my seat belt off. I fail to pay attention to detail, and my brain was so out of whack from the eighteen-hour flight I forgot how I took it off the first time. So while I was struggling, with one swift motion Min-ji undid my belt for me. We both shared a laugh at my stupidity.

And now, a list of things I experienced on the drive from the airport to my uncle Eddie's place:
1. Don't try and take photos with a digital camera while in a moving vehicle. The two second delay will give you shitty shots, especially if you don't care enough to try and lead them.
2. There are a lot of homeless people in Manila. There were several families living under a bridge.
3. It's ghetto here. There were these things my uncle called "squatters" that were basically slums. I wanted to take a picture of one but of course I was too slow. The best way I could describe them would be... have you ever watched District 9? They closely resembled the place where the aliens lived.
4. There was a dead guy on the sidewalk. According to my uncle, they're often homeless people who die of starvation. It made me feel sympathetic and kind of weirded out. Even though it wasn't the first lifeless body I've seen, it was just kind of... I don't know.
5. It's as everybody says it is: hot as a mother fucker. However, it's a tolerable heat; I'm not dying or anything, and with a fan blowing on me I'm actually quite comfortable. I won't be missing Canadian winters any time soon.
6. The food is fucking AMAZING here. My uncle Eddie took me and the family that came with me (Erik and his parents, who are my grandparents) to a Chinese restaurant here, and I have to say it was the best goddamn Chinese food I've ever eaten. I had a filipino dish called sinigang for breakfast, and the fish was fucking awesome, as were the vegetables that accompanied it. Oh yeah, my auntie Aimee also gave me a mango from the tree in their backyard, and yeah, you guessed it, best mango I've ever eaten in my LIFE. The texture was so soft and smooth, and the natural sweetness of the fruit just assaulted my tastebuds with a tropical explosion. It's only been a day and a half and all the food I've tried is better than it was in Canada. I hope this doesn't spoil my appetite when I return home.
7. Though I was expecting stuff to be cheap down here, I didn't think it would be this cheap. it's 55 pesos (Like $1.07) for a 12 oz. drink composed of fresh fruits, and like I previously mentioned, it was some of the best fucking juice I've had. EVER. I was a combination of mangoes, bananas, pineapples, and watermelon, if I recall correctly. Soooo fucking good.
8. There a beastly cockroaches here. I saw two, and they were both bigger than the one gecko I saw.
9. These tricycle things are AWESOME. It's like 7 pesos per person and though it's cramped when you have three people, they're a convenient way to get around.
10. Uhh... there should be more, but I'll get back to you on that. Erik passed out beside me. I suppose he got bored of waiting for me to finish. Though I type at a decent rate, it still takes me forever to finish typing something up. I don't even know why! I could say that it takes me a while to think of what to type, but after I start typing it's not difficult to flow to the next word or idea.

I'm heading to Cebu tomorrow morning with the family I came here with. Maybe I'll get another post up before I go, or if Erik brings his laptop, while I'm there. It's only 9:25 AM here, so it's night time over there for you Canadians. I woke up at 4 AM, and I blame jetlag for that. Hopefully something interesting happens to me today. I plan on going to a mall today to grab some clothes for Cebu. Oh, and expect some pictures soon, too!

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