<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Kimchi, Soba, BK be</font></b><br>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Two of our colleagues wrote of a subject close to our
palate. I am only three hours from the
Yalu River. <i>Chao Tian</i> and <i>Hanggul</i>
(NoKor and SoKor) are my neighbors, and the old Gogoryeo (from where the word
Korea comes from) kingdom included half of Manchuria of old; the Yanbian
Autonomous Region in Jilin (<i>aka, </i>Korea-in-China)
Province has ample supply of <i>la ba cai </i>the
local spiced cabbage, a mainstay in my fridge.</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">I spent two months in Suwon outside of Seoul in '72 and
though familiar with spiced cabbage called <i>kimchi</i>
among Korean fellow students in the United States, it was not until I ate with
the locals that I got "addicted" to the taste. It was, perhaps, helpful that there was a Ms.
Moon that mooned me with the recipe but that was icing on the cake, or, spice
on the cabbage, if you will, rather than the main course itself.</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Each time I go to the street market in Shenyang and see <i>kimchi</i> on display, I try my <i>Yo bo sa-i-yo, ann-yang ha ship-ni-ka, </i>and
see if I get a bite from the vendor.
Sure enough, a seller has yet to be anyone other than a <i>Hanggul Saram </i>(Korean)<i>, </i>and ze makes sure that I get ample
supply of the spiced sauce to go with my veggie!</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">My romance with <i>udon</i>
(noodles) goes back to '65 when the ship I sailed on for San Francisco docked
in Yokohama. A bunch of students from
Southeast Asia decided to explore together Ginza in Tokyo. At a back alley hole-on-the-wall, the spread
of Japanese noodles from the thin <i>ramen,
shirataki, soba, somen, hiyamugi, </i>to the thick noodle, the <i>udon, </i>was ours for the tasting.<i> </i> A Malaysian lady passenger older by half my
age, took innocently cute me under her wings, and she smiled away most of my
cost share, for the <i>udon</i> was not
cheap.</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">It's my turn to relate my food story but not along the
delightful side of the cabbage and the noodle.
What I got recently in my neighborhood is a prominently located corner
fast food service branch of Burger King.
For the three years at the University, each time someone suggested McDo,
I'd steer the conversation away (my aversion to the Donald goes back all the
way to Chicago, so Joe Ayuyu of Saipan should not take offense) and as a coup
d'grace, I'd say, "Besides, I am partial to Burger King!" which was
nowhere available than 4 hrs. away by the bullet train! </font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">This week, one of my former colleagues rang me up and said,
"Guess what? I just saw that Burger
King at the corner of <i>Shen Bei Lu</i> and
<i>Daoyinan Da Jie</i> across from the
school entrance on the same side of the boulevard," (lu = street, da jie =
big street, i.e., Blvd or Ave). The
invite to check it out came automatically.</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Happily, the construction is not finished yet, and I
suspect, they are probably eyeing a Halloween opening, but I am at a
quandary. I no longer like
burgers. In fact, with my friends, I call
it Bugger King; less polite, it is Booger King!
In any case, struggling with girth size, I probably could get away with
just telling everyone the truth and confess that I have become almost a
vegetarian! </font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Well, almost. I still
eat seafood, fowl and fish; if prepared carefully, I also nibble on the
oxen/cattle from the grasslands of Nei Menggu.
The Yokohama beef of old was more my taste. They massaged them individually before
applying the blade. Now I get drawn to
the Muslim <i>(Hui) </i>shops that serve
lamb ribs and goat kid b-b-q.</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">But for now, it is getting around Burger King. It must be the function of age, having sat
through too many meetings with not much bending of the waist and knee, and a
propensity to frequent buffets and all-you-can-eat places that the rotund shape
had come to be. It does not help that
middle-aged Chinese ladies think it is cute to look elegantly prosperous to be
a robustly apple shaped <i>lao ye</i>. </font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">The <i>xanthelesmata,</i>
the blotch of yellow skin on the eyelid, is a very telling sign that I carry
too much cholesterol in my blood stream, an indicator of a disease that Tony
Stearns commented the last time I stopped by his clinic. Since I am in the last phase of my living
designated as the gracious exit of my dying, the remaining time to my existence
is of no consequence. It is the quality
of the expenditure of life that is of utmost importance.</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">So, to bugger, or to booger, that is the question. Burger King sits resplendent in our prominent
corner with its whopper grilled, a plus in its favor. The double whopper brimming with the Swiss
cheese, lettuce and tomato still makes the heart go fonder! My taste buds yearns for the radiant French
fries, I thirst for a glass of root beer, and I do not shy away from a
succulent chicken tenders. I flounder in
my age-old habit of blunders!</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Burger King accelerated market presence in the last two
years. Earlier acquired by 3G Capital of
Brazil, it merged with the coffee and doughnut chain of Tim Horton of Canada
with backing from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. It started calling its signature product the
BK whopper. </font></div>
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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">I am inside the whopping beltway of its
temptation. To be, or, to BK be.</font><font size="4" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><br>
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<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; clear: both;"><i>j'aime la vie</i><br>
<a href="mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com">pinoypanda2031@aol.com</a><br>
<div><i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</i></div>
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