EXPANDED MIND – Vitality Tip #22

Following my advice from last week’s post to try something new, on Sunday I went to a Korean restaurant in San Diego to eat Kimchi – of which I had heard mixed reviews over the years.

Not being daring enough to order a dish with Kimchi as the main ingredient, I saw a photo in the glossy Korean menu with brief, four words English translation, “Vegetable Egg Stone Bowl.” The waiter assured me that Kimchi would accompany the bowl as a side dish.

Sure enough a hot bowl full of vegetables, with white rice base, and five small side dishes appeared before me. Where’s the fork? I asked. Even though he seemed startled by the question, the waiter pointed to  a box with chopsticks and large spoons on the table. Timidly I said…Please bring me a fork just in case.

The chopsticks worked fine except for one of the side dishes that had cool, white slippery rectangles called bean jelly, which kept sliding off onto my lap.

At first I couldn’t find the Kimchi, but when I asked if the thick and thin white strands in red sauce were fish fillets, the waiter let me know that this side dish was the Kimchi. (Another side dish I thought was pickled tofu actually turned out to be fish.) The Kimchi tasted tangy, slightly salty and mildly spicy – but palatable.

Risk overcome!!! I was okay and had begun an appreciation for the many Korean and other Asian restaurants which line a multi-block area of Convoy Street in San Diego. Mind expanded. Cultural awareness elevated. WF!